Risk Perception & Personality Characteristics as Determinants in the use of mHealth Technology in the Context of Personal Fitness (2021)

Background: Insufficient physical activity among young adults (18-35) is a worldwide concern with little progress to improve. Despite public health promotion efforts sedentary behavior increases over the years in high-income countries from 32% to 37% and remains stable in low-income countries 16%. To promote physical activity several public health organizations have established physical activity guidelines that recommend engaging 150 minutes of weekly moderate-intensity physical activity to maintain a healthy lifestyle. However, according to a national study of the German population, only 44% of males and 35% of females meet these recommendations. Given their constant availability, motivational and supporting features interventions utilizing smartwatches started to emerge. However, smartwatches collect very private and sensitive information, which evokes various concerns in individuals and impedes adoption of smartwatches. Another factor that should be considered when it comes to the adaption of technology is personality. Therefore, this study aims to explore which risk perception factors (privacy risk, performance risk, legal concern, trust and willingness to share personal data) and which personality types (agreeableness, emotional instability, extraversion, openness to new experience, conscientiousness) are associated with adoption intention of smartwatches for personal fitness of young adults. 
Methods: A cross-sectional online survey design was conducted with young adults (18-35 years) using two questionnaires (1) the Risk Perception and Adoption Intention of Smartwatches questionnaire and (2) the BIF-2-S questionnaire. A univariate analysis was accomplished to select variables to include in further analysis followed by a multiple linear regression analysis.
Results: The sample consist of N = 101 participants (51% male; mean (SD) age 25 (5.1) years). Most respondents have German nationality (89%) and do not use smartwatches (60%). The multiple linear regression analysis of the variable’s privacy risk, trust and extraversion with adoption intention indicated to explain 20% of the variance in adoption intention (R2 = .20, F (3, 46) = 7.95, p = .000). Trust had a positive significant relationship with adoption intention whereas privacy risk and extraversion had a negative significant relationship with adoption intention. 
Conclusion: Although the concept’s privacy risk, trust and extraversion explain only 20% of the adoption intention it can be concluded that these concepts are still relevant and should be considered in the development of mHealth technologies for physical fitness. Based on the findings in this study smartwatch designers should consider to decrease individual’s privacy concerns of smartwatches and with that increase individual’s trust. As privacy risk is found to have a negative association with adoption intention and trust has a positive association, it could increase individuals’ adoption intention of smartwatches. Besides that, integrating personality differences in the design can be effective to increase the adoption intention of specific groups of individuals. For instance, by including social comparison, competition, or other social features smartwatches might become more appealing for extraverts are would be more likely to be used for personal fitness.