Exploring Patients’ Lived Experiences with Wearable Health Technologies in Chronic Disease Management
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Abstract
Wearable medical technologies have become integral to modern biomedical engineering, enabling continuous health monitoring and data-driven patient care. Within this field, growing attention has been directed toward understanding how patients experience and interpret the integration of such technologies in their everyday lives. However, little is known about the subjective meanings and emotional dimensions that accompany long-term use of wearable sensors, raising the question: How do patients with chronic illnesses make sense of living under continuous technological observation? This study employs an interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA) to explore patients’ lived experiences with wearable health devices and provides clearer methodological transparency by detailing the analytic procedures used in interpreting participant narratives. Data were collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with twelve participants and analyzed through a systematic hermeneutic process involving coding, theme development, and iterative interpretative cycles to ensure analytic rigor. The analysis revealed four interrelated themes: (1) fluctuating trust in device accuracy, (2) emotional and cognitive burden from continuous self-monitoring, (3) heightened concerns over privacy and ethical vulnerability, and (4) shifts in communication and dependency patterns with healthcare providers—summarized more succinctly to enhance thematic clarity. These findings highlight the duality of empowerment and alienation that characterizes the patient–technology relationship, emphasizing practical implications for improving patient engagement, strengthening digital ethics, and guiding the development of more empathetic and user-centered wearable systems. This study deepens our understanding of technological embodiment in healthcare and offers a conceptual foundation for designing human-centered digital health systems that align innovation with the lived realities of patients.
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