Willingness of Older Adults to Share Mobile Health Data with Researchers

What is it about?

This study explored the use of wearable devices to track self-recorded health data and the willingness to share this data with re- searchers. Participants aged ≥ 50 years (n = 1,013) were interviewed in a representative telephone survey. Results indicated that 43.3% of all participants used one or more mobile devices (activity tracker, smartwatch, smartphone, or tablet), and that 27.6% used those devices for the purposes of recording health data. Additionally, 57.2% of the participants who tracked their health data were willing to share it with research- ers. Income significantly contributed to predicting this willingness, whereas other independent variables were not significant predictors. This study indicates a relatively positive overall willingness to share self-recorded mobile health data with the science community.

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