Wearables in Healthcare: A study of patient perceptions, usage, and barriers to effective integration - Confab 360 Degree Annual Conference in Dubai, 2025

Abstract

Wearable devices are transforming the healthcare sector by facilitating continuous health monitoring, promoting proactive patient management, and enhancing overall health outcomes. From basic fitness bands to sophisticated health sensors, these devices gather real-time data on vital signs, physical activity, and other physiological metrics, providing crucial insights for both patients and medical professionals. Despite the growing adoption of wearables, there remains a need to understand user perceptions, actual usage patterns, and challenges. Such insights can help bridge gaps in healthcare delivery and improve patient outcomes, for various patient groups.

This study investigates patients’ perceptions, usage behaviour, and the perceived limitations of wearable health technologies through a structured survey.

Findings indicate that while awareness and adoption levels are relatively high, a significant proportion of users remain sceptical about the effectiveness of wearables for long-term health monitoring. The most valued benefits cited by respondents are physical activity tracking, sleep monitoring, and stress tracking. However, key challenges include concerns over data privacy and accuracy, lack of seamless integration with formal healthcare systems, limited digital literacy, accessibility issues, high costs, and inadequate battery performance.

The findings highlight a critical gap between adoption and trust in wearable health technologies, underscoring the need for improved reliability, data privacy, user education, and healthcare integration to enhance patient confidence and outcomes. Overcoming these challenges is key to unlocking the full benefits of wearables in delivering accessible and effective healthcare.