Willingness of Older Adults to Share Mobile Health Data with Researchers

Abstract

This study explored the use of wearable devices to track self-recorded health data and the willingness to share this data with researchers. 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 researchers. 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.