The impact of activity sensors on attitudes and behavior among young and elderly people

摘要

Wearable activity sensors have the potential to reduce sedentary behavior and improve overall health status. Although there is a technology usage gap between young and elderly people, the impact of activity sensors still has not been clearly identified between them yet. Therefore, we explored the differences in physical activity performance, motivation, and attitudes between young (age: 22.4±1.3 years; N = 36) and elderly people (age: 71.7±2.0 years; N = 30) through a six-week usage of activity sensors. It was identified that there was no significant difference in walked steps between the two age groups. However, elderly participants showed more adherence to complete their daily activity goal compared to young participants. In addition, the elderly group had higher attitude scores in the activity commitment, the satisfaction of activity monitoring, and the significance of physical activity than the youth group. These findings support that elderly people are more likely to have positive attitudes and a higher activity obligation when using activity monitoring technology than youth.