Cognition on wearable monitoring devices for health care and its influencing factors among the elderly in Lanzhou city

  Objective  To examine the status and influencing factors of cognition on wearable monitoring devices for health care among elderly residents in Lanzhou city, Gansu province, and to provide references for promoting the application of Internet plus medical care for healthy aging.

  Methods  We conducted a face-to-face questionnaire survey among 1 250 residents aged 60 years and older recruited with convenience sampling in 5 urban districts of Lanzhou city from June to September 2018.

  Results  Of the 1 235 respondents, 40.16% (496) were aware of wearable monitoring devices for health care; 37.89% (468) reported the willingness to use the devices; and 36.92% (456) considered that the application of the devices would help monitor health status. The top three functions of the wearable monitoring devices listed by the respondents were fall alarming (by 60.00% of the respondents), positioning (54.25%) and metabolic monitoring (53.52%). Unconditional multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the participants having regular physical examination (odds ratio OR = 1.531, 95% confidence interval 95% CI: 1.158 – 2.024) and with experience of using wearable monitoring devices for health care (OR = 4.750, 95% CI: 2.966 – 7.607) were more likely to accept the application of the wearable monitoring devices.

  Conclusion  The awareness on and the acceptance for wearable monitoring devices for health care are at a low level and the acceptance for the devices′ application is positively correlated with having regular physical examination and utilization experience of the devices among elderly residents in Lanzhou city.