The quantified self : the affect on health behavior from self-tracking

Abstract

The fast rising of various chronicall health issues (e.g. diabetes, obesity) in the world and the increasing strain and cost it delivers on health care systems, can greatly affect peoples lifes, from both health and economic perspective. Due to this current situation, a need for new ways to monitor vital health of individuals has emerged, as a consequence. Wearable technology such as smartwatches and fitness trackers (and others) have demonstrated to be a valuable solution for self tracking and monitoring vital signs, both for recreational and professional health care purposes. This thesis research investigates the opinions of people towards Quantified self, self tracking and self-tracking communities with the purpose of monitoring individual health to gain access to health information. Further, it is investigated if the acquired knowledge from self-tracking, influences individual health behavior. Results showed that majority of people of both genders, especially older generations, are interested and positive towards self-tracking and involved in monitoring their own vital signs on a regular basis. Further, ethical conduct in relation to the accumulation and management of personal health data, is viewed as important to majority of people, which is considered from the results and research to have probable impact on current and future use of tracking technology. From the results and investigation on the subject, it is concluded that accumulated self-knowledge from self-tracking can generate self-expertise that can influence individual health behavior.