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Experiences of Wearable Technology by Persons with Knee Osteoarthritis Participating in a Physical Activity Counseling Intervention: Qualitative Study Using a Relational Ethics Lens

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Experiences of Wearable Technology by Persons with Knee Osteoarthritis Participating in a Physical Activity Counseling Intervention: Qualitative Study Using a Relational Ethics Lens. / Leese, Jenny; MacDonald, Graham; Backman, Catherine L et al.
In: JMIR mHealth and uHealth, Vol. 9, No. 11, e30332, 12.11.2021.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

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APA

Leese, J., MacDonald, G., Backman, C. L., Townsend, A., Nimmon, L., & Li, L. C. (2021). Experiences of Wearable Technology by Persons with Knee Osteoarthritis Participating in a Physical Activity Counseling Intervention: Qualitative Study Using a Relational Ethics Lens. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 9(11), Article e30332. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.2196/30332

Vancouver

Leese J, MacDonald G, Backman CL, Townsend A, Nimmon L, Li LC. Experiences of Wearable Technology by Persons with Knee Osteoarthritis Participating in a Physical Activity Counseling Intervention: Qualitative Study Using a Relational Ethics Lens. JMIR mHealth and uHealth. 2021 Nov 12;9(11):e30332. Epub 2021 Nov 12. doi: 10.2196/30332

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Bibtex

@article{353b54485b934c1da7b8f261161e0bb3,
title = "Experiences of Wearable Technology by Persons with Knee Osteoarthritis Participating in a Physical Activity Counseling Intervention: Qualitative Study Using a Relational Ethics Lens",
abstract = "Current evidence indicates physical activity wearables could support persons with knee osteoarthritis (OA) to be more physically active. However, recent evidence also identifies some persons with arthritis experience guilt or worry while using a wearable if they are not as active as they feel they should be. Questions remain around how persons with knee OA experience benefits or downsides using a wearable in their everyday lives. Better understanding is needed if wearables are to be incorporated in arthritis self-management in ethically aware ways. Using an ethics lens, we aimed to describe a range of experiences from persons with knee OA who used a wearable during a physical activity counseling intervention study. This is a secondary analysis of qualitative interviews nested within a randomized controlled trial. Guided by phenomenography, we explored the experiences of persons with knee OA following participation in a physical activity counseling intervention that involved using a Fitbit Flex and biweekly phone calls with a study physiotherapist (PT) in an 8-week period. Benefits or downsides experienced in participants' relationships with themselves or the study PT when using the wearable were identified using a relational ethics lens. Interviews with 21 participants (12 females and 9 males) aged 40 to 82 years were analyzed. Education levels ranged from high school graduates (4/21, 19%) to bachelor's degrees or above (11/21, 52%). We identified 3 categories of description: (1) participants experienced their wearable as a motivating or nagging influence to be more active, depending on how freely they were able to make autonomous choices about physical activity in their everyday lives; (2) some participants felt a sense of accomplishment from seeing progress in their wearable data, which fueled their motivation; (3) for some participants, sharing wearable data helped to build mutual trust in their relationship with the study PT. However, they also expressed there was potential for sharing wearable data to undermine this trust, particularly if this data was inaccurate. Findings provide an early glimpse into positive and negative emotional impacts of using a wearable that can be experienced by participants with knee OA when participating in a randomized controlled trial to support physical activity. To our knowledge, this is the first qualitative study that uses a relational ethics lens to explore how persons with arthritis experienced changes in their relationship with a health professional when using a wearable during research participation. ",
keywords = "arthritis, qualitative, physical activity, relational ethics, wearable",
author = "Jenny Leese and Graham MacDonald and Backman, {Catherine L} and Anne Townsend and Laura Nimmon and Li, {Linda C}",
year = "2021",
month = nov,
day = "12",
doi = "10.2196/30332",
language = "English",
volume = "9",
journal = "JMIR mHealth and uHealth",
issn = "2291-5222",
publisher = "Journal of medical Internet Research",
number = "11",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Experiences of Wearable Technology by Persons with Knee Osteoarthritis Participating in a Physical Activity Counseling Intervention: Qualitative Study Using a Relational Ethics Lens

AU - Leese, Jenny

AU - MacDonald, Graham

AU - Backman, Catherine L

AU - Townsend, Anne

AU - Nimmon, Laura

AU - Li, Linda C

PY - 2021/11/12

Y1 - 2021/11/12

N2 - Current evidence indicates physical activity wearables could support persons with knee osteoarthritis (OA) to be more physically active. However, recent evidence also identifies some persons with arthritis experience guilt or worry while using a wearable if they are not as active as they feel they should be. Questions remain around how persons with knee OA experience benefits or downsides using a wearable in their everyday lives. Better understanding is needed if wearables are to be incorporated in arthritis self-management in ethically aware ways. Using an ethics lens, we aimed to describe a range of experiences from persons with knee OA who used a wearable during a physical activity counseling intervention study. This is a secondary analysis of qualitative interviews nested within a randomized controlled trial. Guided by phenomenography, we explored the experiences of persons with knee OA following participation in a physical activity counseling intervention that involved using a Fitbit Flex and biweekly phone calls with a study physiotherapist (PT) in an 8-week period. Benefits or downsides experienced in participants' relationships with themselves or the study PT when using the wearable were identified using a relational ethics lens. Interviews with 21 participants (12 females and 9 males) aged 40 to 82 years were analyzed. Education levels ranged from high school graduates (4/21, 19%) to bachelor's degrees or above (11/21, 52%). We identified 3 categories of description: (1) participants experienced their wearable as a motivating or nagging influence to be more active, depending on how freely they were able to make autonomous choices about physical activity in their everyday lives; (2) some participants felt a sense of accomplishment from seeing progress in their wearable data, which fueled their motivation; (3) for some participants, sharing wearable data helped to build mutual trust in their relationship with the study PT. However, they also expressed there was potential for sharing wearable data to undermine this trust, particularly if this data was inaccurate. Findings provide an early glimpse into positive and negative emotional impacts of using a wearable that can be experienced by participants with knee OA when participating in a randomized controlled trial to support physical activity. To our knowledge, this is the first qualitative study that uses a relational ethics lens to explore how persons with arthritis experienced changes in their relationship with a health professional when using a wearable during research participation.

AB - Current evidence indicates physical activity wearables could support persons with knee osteoarthritis (OA) to be more physically active. However, recent evidence also identifies some persons with arthritis experience guilt or worry while using a wearable if they are not as active as they feel they should be. Questions remain around how persons with knee OA experience benefits or downsides using a wearable in their everyday lives. Better understanding is needed if wearables are to be incorporated in arthritis self-management in ethically aware ways. Using an ethics lens, we aimed to describe a range of experiences from persons with knee OA who used a wearable during a physical activity counseling intervention study. This is a secondary analysis of qualitative interviews nested within a randomized controlled trial. Guided by phenomenography, we explored the experiences of persons with knee OA following participation in a physical activity counseling intervention that involved using a Fitbit Flex and biweekly phone calls with a study physiotherapist (PT) in an 8-week period. Benefits or downsides experienced in participants' relationships with themselves or the study PT when using the wearable were identified using a relational ethics lens. Interviews with 21 participants (12 females and 9 males) aged 40 to 82 years were analyzed. Education levels ranged from high school graduates (4/21, 19%) to bachelor's degrees or above (11/21, 52%). We identified 3 categories of description: (1) participants experienced their wearable as a motivating or nagging influence to be more active, depending on how freely they were able to make autonomous choices about physical activity in their everyday lives; (2) some participants felt a sense of accomplishment from seeing progress in their wearable data, which fueled their motivation; (3) for some participants, sharing wearable data helped to build mutual trust in their relationship with the study PT. However, they also expressed there was potential for sharing wearable data to undermine this trust, particularly if this data was inaccurate. Findings provide an early glimpse into positive and negative emotional impacts of using a wearable that can be experienced by participants with knee OA when participating in a randomized controlled trial to support physical activity. To our knowledge, this is the first qualitative study that uses a relational ethics lens to explore how persons with arthritis experienced changes in their relationship with a health professional when using a wearable during research participation.

KW - arthritis

KW - qualitative

KW - physical activity

KW - relational ethics

KW - wearable

U2 - 10.2196/30332

DO - 10.2196/30332

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 34766912

VL - 9

JO - JMIR mHealth and uHealth

JF - JMIR mHealth and uHealth

SN - 2291-5222

IS - 11

M1 - e30332

ER -