Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Human Factors
Date Submitted: Aug 12, 2024
Open Peer Review Period: Sep 12, 2024 - Nov 7, 2024
Date Accepted: Mar 7, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
“In our world, calories are very important”- Experiences of Wheel-chair users with Spinal Cord Injury with commercial self-tracking technology and self-tracking: A qualitative interview study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Commercial wearable and mobile wellness apps and devices become increasingly affordable and ubiquitous. One of their aims is to assist the individual wearing them in a healthier lifestyle by tracking and visualizing their data. Some of these devices and apps have the wheelchair mode to indicate that are designed for different types of bodies, e.g. wheelchair users with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). However, research focuses mainly on designing and developing new condition-specific self-tracking technology, while the experiences of wheelchair users with SCI using self-tracking technology remain under-explored.
Objective:
The objective of this study is to (1) give a comprehensive overview of the literature in the field of self-tracking technology and wheelchair users as a basis for the study, (2) present the self-tracking needs of wheelchair users with SCI, and (3) present their experiences and use of commercial self-tracking technology.
Methods:
We conducted semi-structured interviews with wheelchair users with SCI to understand their experiences with self-tracking and self-tracking technologies, their self-tracking needs, and how they changed before and after the injury. The interviews were thematically analyzed with an inductive approach.
Results:
Our findings consist of three themes (1) being a wheelchair user with SCI, (2) Reasons for self-tracking, and (3) experiences with self-tracking technologies and tools. The last theme consists of three sub-themes: self-tracking technology usage, trust in self-tracking technology, and calorie tracking.
Conclusions:
In the discussion, we present how our findings relate to the literature and discuss the lack of trust in commercial self-tracking technologies regarding calorie tracking as well as the role of wheelchair users with SCI in the design of commercial self-tracking technology. Clinical Trial: Not relevant to this study
Citation
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Copyright
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