Perceptions of Wearable Health Data Governance Among Wearable Users and Health Professionals in South Africa

Personal health management and clinical health systems are increasingly being transformed by data-driven smart technologies that enable remote monitoring, predictive analytics, and digitally mediated care. Wearable technologies contribute to this transformation by continuously generating wearable health data (WHD), but integrating such data into routine and clinical health management raises governance requirements beyond those for traditional health data. This study examines perceptions of WHD governance among wearable users and health professionals in South Africa. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, with quantitative and qualitative data collected through questionnaires and interviews. The findings show that wearable users are generally confident in WHD governance regarding access, reliability, trust, accuracy, and sharing. Privacy and third-party data practices raised comparatively less concern, though with less certainty, while perceptions of security and the adequacy of current South African laws were less definite and marked more by uncertainty. Health professionals viewed WHD governance more cautiously, emphasising regulatory adequacy, data quality, security, accountability, and the conditions required for meaningful use of WHD in health management. The study concludes that effective WHD governance requires more than formal regulation and must also support intelligibility, credibility, quality assurance, and practical oversight to support the responsible integration of WHD into health management.