Sustainable Society Design Center, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan.
Faculty of Nursing, Komazawa Women's University, Tokyo, Japan.
JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2024 Jul 31;10:e51537. doi: 10.2196/51537.
Demographic changes and a low birth rate have led to a workforce shortage in Japan. To address this issue, the government has promoted engagement of female employment. However, increased female employment can impact women's health. Using Internet of Things (IoT) and apps to manage women's health has gained attention, but few studies have focused on working women.
This study aimed to clarify the current situation of working women and their use of IoT or apps to manage their health.
A large-scale, nationwide internet survey was conducted among 10,000 female participants aged from 20 years to 64 years in Japan. Participants were recruited from a marketing research company's active survey panel of 5.24 million members. The survey included questions about health status, sociodemographic factors, psychological characteristics, and the use of IoT or apps for health management. We compared perceived health status and reasons for current IoT use using t tests and assessed participant characteristics that predicted IoT use using the C5.0 decision tree algorithm. Ethical approval was granted by St. Luke's International University.
Among participants, 14.6% (1455/10,000) currently used IoT or apps, 7% (695/10,000) used them previously, and 78.5% (7850/10,000) had never used them. Current users (42.7 years old) were older than past users (39.7 years old). Discrepancies were observed between participants' perceived health problems and the purpose for using IoT or apps, with 21.3% (2130/10,000) of all women reporting they experienced menstrual symptoms or disorders but only 3.5% (347/10,000) used IoT or apps to manage the same symptom. On the other hand, current users were more likely to use IoT or apps to manage nutrition-related problems such as underweight or obesity (405/1455, 27.8%). Device use was highest among current users, with 87.3% (1270/1455) using smartphones, 19.7% (287/1455) using smartwatches, and 13.3% (194/1455) using PCs. Decision tree analysis identified 6 clusters, the largest consisting of 81.6% (5323/6523) of non-IoT users who did not exercise regularly, while pregnant women were more likely to use IoT or apps.
Our findings highlight the idea that woman with particular health problems (ie, menstrual symptoms or disorders and premenstrual syndrome) have lower use of IoT or apps, suggesting an unmet need for IoT and apps in specific areas.
人口结构变化和低出生率导致日本劳动力短缺。为了解决这个问题，政府已经提倡女性就业。然而，女性就业的增加可能会影响女性的健康。使用物联网 (IoT) 和应用程序来管理女性健康已经引起了关注，但很少有研究关注职业女性。
本研究旨在阐明职业女性的现状及其使用物联网或应用程序来管理健康的情况。
在日本，对 10000 名年龄在 20 岁至 64 岁之间的女性参与者进行了一项大规模的全国性互联网调查。参与者是从一家市场研究公司的 524 万活跃调查小组中招募的。该调查包括有关健康状况、社会人口因素、心理特征以及使用物联网或应用程序进行健康管理的问题。我们使用 t 检验比较了感知健康状况和当前使用物联网的原因，并使用 C5.0 决策树算法评估了预测物联网使用的参与者特征。圣卢克国际大学批准了伦理审查。
在参与者中，14.6%（1455/10000）目前使用物联网或应用程序，7%（695/10000）以前使用过，78.5%（7850/10000）从未使用过。当前用户（42.7 岁）比过去用户（39.7 岁）年龄大。参与者感知到的健康问题与使用物联网或应用程序的目的之间存在差异，所有女性中有 21.3%（2130/10000）报告存在月经症状或障碍，但只有 3.5%（347/10000）使用物联网或应用程序来管理相同的症状。另一方面，当前用户更有可能使用物联网或应用程序来管理与营养相关的问题，例如体重过轻或肥胖（405/1455，27.8%）。当前用户中设备使用率最高，其中 87.3%（1270/1455）使用智能手机，19.7%（287/1455）使用智能手表，13.3%（194/1455）使用个人电脑。决策树分析确定了 6 个聚类，最大的聚类由 81.6%（5323/6523）的非物联网用户组成，这些用户不经常锻炼，而孕妇更有可能使用物联网或应用程序。
我们的研究结果表明，特定健康问题（即月经症状或障碍和经前综合征）的女性使用物联网或应用程序的频率较低，这表明在特定领域对物联网和应用程序存在未满足的需求。
