Date
8-29-2025
Department
School of Health Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Health Sciences (PhD)
Chair
Orchid George
Keywords
Wearable devices, disease detection, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived health outcomes, early disease detection
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences
Recommended Citation
Iwummadu, Chinonso, "Exploring the Effectiveness of Wearable Devices for Early Disease Detection" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 7467.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7467
Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative interpretive phenomenological study was to explore the perceived effectiveness of wearable devices in facilitating early disease detection among patient groups, healthcare professionals, and healthcare administrators in the outpatient care setting. The central phenomenon investigated, involved the experiences, perceptions, and behavioral responses toward real-time monitoring and diagnostic engagement enabled by wearable devices. The theory that guided the study was the Health Technology Acceptance Model (HTAM), which supported inquiry into how perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived health outcomes shaped adoption behavior and clinical integration of digital tools. Data were collected from a purposive sample of 50 participants, 30 patients, 15 healthcare professionals, and five healthcare administrators through interviews, focus groups, and observations. Thematic analysis, conducted using NVivo software, revealed that wearable devices contributed to early health risk identification, improved patient-clinician communication, and promoted engagement in preventive care routines. Observation data validated self-reported behaviors, strengthening the contextual understanding of device use patterns in everyday and clinical settings. The study findings showed that while wearable devices facilitated proactive health management and affected clinical appointment behaviors, challenges to include excessive alerts, unreliable metrics, and poor system interoperability, remained significant barriers to clinical utility. The study results provided strategic insights for integrating wearable devices into the concept of preventive care and contributed to delivering innovations in the early diagnostic process and the development of digital health policies and systems in the future.
