Characteristics of Wearable Activity Tracker Users and Their Association with Health-Management Satisfaction Among Older Japanese Adults

Although wearable activity trackers (WAT) are considered beneficial for health-management in older adults, their prevalence and impact on health satisfaction are unclear. We limited our study to older Japanese adults who used smartphones, tablets, or personal computers. We categorized the participants into WAT users and non-users. The survey examined the use of WAT which was a wristwatch, other type (glasses, ring, and clip); demographics; health-related measures; Information and Communication Technology (ICT) accessibility; and health-management satisfaction. From 12,869 older Japanese adults, 8,876 adults responded to the survey, and we included 3,467 adults who used digital devices. The prevalence of WAT use was 4.4% (men: 61.4%). The reason for using WAT was health-management in 61.4% of cases, mainly for monitoring blood pressure/heart rate control (64.3%) and exercise (60.6%). Gender-stratified logistic regression analysis showed that men with higher ICT accessibility, exercise habits, and cardiometabolic diseases were more likely to use WAT. The study found no factors of the WAT use in women and no significant difference in health-management satisfaction between WAT users and non-users. The results suggest that simply wearing a WAT does not increase satisfaction with health-management. The study recommends greater opportunities to teach the effective and active use of WAT.