Salient constructs to enhance the acceptance of wearable medical devices: An exploratory research

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Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Enformatik Enstitüsü, Bilişim Sistemleri Anabilim Dalı, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2020

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: MUSTAFA DEĞERLİ

Danışman: Sevgi Özkan Yıldırım

Özet:

Wearables are becoming more ubiquitous and they have many functions and benefits for healthy living and aging. In this context, the acceptance of wearable medical devices depends on user acceptance and it is vital. Yet, existing understanding in this field needs firm improvement. Hence, the main objective of this research is to distill salient constructs to enhance the acceptance of wearable medical devices. Specifically, it is chiefly aimed to identify factors, associated items, & interactions of the factors. For this purpose, an original questionnaire was developed and deployed, and data were collected from 1057 people from a developing country, Turkey, to draw conclusions. A partial least squares structural equation modeling consisting of exploratory & confirmatory factor analyses was applied by data collection, model specification, identification, estimation, evaluation, & modification. On the subject of principal success factors to enhance the acceptance of wearable medical devices, 11 salient constructs (attitude and behavioral intention; dependability; design; device characteristics and features; worthiness; perceived usefulness; privacy, confidentiality, and security; perceived ease of use; compatibility; promotion; user characteristics) with 39 items and 18 statistically significantly meaningful relationships among these constructs were distilled. Consequently, composed of distilled constructs and their associations, a novel model was developed. Additionally, descriptive statistics, multi-group analyses, and quasi-statistics were conducted for further inferences. This research contributes to the body of knowledge regarding the acceptance of wearable medical devices with distilled new results. These contributions advance the understanding in this context and are going to be beneficial for both researchers and product developers.