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Wearables are a potentially vital mechanism for individuals to monitor their health, track behaviors, and stay connected. Unfortunately, both price and a lack of consideration of the needs of low-SES communities have made these devices inaccessible and unusable for communities that would most substantially benefit from their affordances. To address this gap and better understand how members of low-SES communities perceive the potential benefits and barriers to using wearable devices, we conducted 19 semi-structured interviews with people from minority, high crime rate, low-SES communities. Participants emphasized a critical need for safety-related wearable devices in their communities. Still, existing tools do not yet address the specific needs of this community and are out of reach due to several barriers. We distill themes on perceived useful features and ongoing obstacles to guide a much-needed research agenda we term ’Equityware’: building wearable devices based on low-SES communities’ needs, comfortability, and limitations.
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Perceptions of Wearable Health Tools Post the COVID-19 Emergency in Low-Income Latin Communities: Qualitative Study
Background Mobile health (mHealth) wearable devices are increasingly being adopted by individuals to help manage and monitor physiological signals. However, the current state of wearables does not consider the needs of racially minoritized low–socioeconomic status (SES) communities regarding usability, accessibility, and price. This is a critical issue that necessitates immediate attention and resolution. Objective This study’s aims were 3-fold, to (1) understand how members of minoritized low-SES communities perceive current mHealth wearable devices, (2) identify the barriers and facilitators toward adoption, and (3) articulate design requirements for future wearable devices to enable equitable access for these communities. Methods We performed semistructured interviews with low-SES Hispanic or Latine adults (N=19) from 2 metropolitan cities in the Midwest and West Coast of the United States. Participants were asked questions about how they perceive wearables, what are the current benefits and barriers toward use, and what features they would like to see in future wearable devices. Common themes were identified and analyzed through an exploratory qualitative approach. Results Through qualitative analysis, we identified 4 main themes. Participants’ perceptions of wearable devices were strongly influenced by their COVID-19 experiences. Hence, the first theme was related to the impact of COVID-19 on the community, and how this resulted in a significant increase in interest in wearables. The second theme highlights the challenges faced in obtaining adequate health resources and how this further motivated participants’ interest in health wearables. The third theme focuses on a general distrust in health care infrastructure and systems and how these challenges are motivating a need for wearables. Lastly, participants emphasized the pressing need for community-driven design of wearable technologies. Conclusions The findings from this study reveal that participants from underserved communities are showing emerging interest in using health wearables due to the COVID-19 pandemic and health care access issues. Yet, the needs of these individuals have been excluded from the design and development of current devices.
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- PAR ID:
- 10512147
- Publisher / Repository:
- JMIR Publications
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- JMIR mHealth and uHealth
- Volume:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 2291-5222
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- e50826
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.2196/50826
