He Guoping, He Wenlu, Qiao Fei
School of Literature and Media, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, Guangdong, China.
Research Fellow at Guangzhou Research Center for Public Opinion Governance and International Image Communication, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Digit Health. 2025 May 11;11:20552076251338896. doi: 10.1177/20552076251338896. eCollection 2025 Jan-Dec.
The study aims to investigate how wearable fitness devices (WFDs) influence health-promoting behavior in the Chinese context, particularly by examining two distinct affordances-health technician affordance and health consultant affordance-derived from affordance theory.
Drawing on affordance theory and integrating health communication and technology models (including Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, Protection Motivation Theory, Technology Acceptance Model, Theory of Planned Behavior, Social Cognitive Theory, and Pender's Health Promotion Model), we developed a theoretical model that incorporates three mediators relevant to individual technology use. We collected 615 valid responses through a questionnaire survey across China via QR codes and links on social platforms, and used SPSS and SmartPLS for data analyzing to validate our research model.
Our findings indicate that performance expectancy and exercise self-efficacy are positively associated with health-promoting behavior. Moreover, the relationship between both health technician and health consultant affordances and health-promoting behavior is mediated by performance expectancy and exercise self-efficacy. In addition, prior exercise behavior significantly influences health-promoting behavior.
The study advances our understanding of how WFDs contribute to health-promoting behavior by delineating both the technical and consultative roles of these devices. The results provide important theoretical insights and practical implications for enhancing health communication strategies and optimizing the use of wearable fitness technology.
本研究旨在探讨在中国背景下，可穿戴健身设备（WFDs）如何影响促进健康的行为，特别是通过检验从可供性理论衍生出的两种不同的可供性——健康技术员可供性和健康顾问可供性。
借鉴可供性理论，并整合健康传播与技术模型（包括技术接受与使用统一理论、保护动机理论、技术接受模型、计划行为理论、社会认知理论和彭德的健康促进模型），我们构建了一个包含与个体技术使用相关的三个中介变量的理论模型。我们通过在中国各地通过社交平台上的二维码和链接进行问卷调查，收集了615份有效回复，并使用SPSS和SmartPLS进行数据分析以验证我们的研究模型。
我们的研究结果表明，绩效期望和运动自我效能与促进健康的行为呈正相关。此外，健康技术员可供性和健康顾问可供性与促进健康行为之间的关系均由绩效期望和运动自我效能介导。此外，先前的运动行为对促进健康的行为有显著影响。
本研究通过阐述这些设备的技术和咨询角色，增进了我们对可穿戴健身设备如何促进健康行为的理解。研究结果为加强健康传播策略和优化可穿戴健身技术的使用提供了重要的理论见解和实际意义。
