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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1578063
This article is part of the Research TopicSmart wrist devices for elderly peopleView all articles
Health effects and mediating mechanisms of smart wearable devices on the older people: evidence from China
Provisionally accepted- Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
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Background: With the aging of the population, health issues among older people have drawn increasing societal attention. The rapid development of intelligent technology provides innovative solutions to addressing these challenges. This study aims to explore the impact of smart wearable devices on older people’s health outcomes while discussing the mechanism of physical exercise, to provide a new perspective and exercise strategy for maximizing the positive role of smart wearable devices in elderly health management.Methods: Utilizing data from the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (CLASS), this study analyzed 21,881 samples. Descriptive statistics was computed using SPSS, followed by bidirectional fixed effect model analysis and intermediate effect test via Stata.Results: Bidirectional fixed effect model showed that the use of smart wearable devices could significantly improve the physical health of the older people (β = 0.325, p < 0.001). The effect was more significant in those aged 70 years or older (β = 0.385, p < 0.001), those without chronic diseases (β = 0.590, p < 0.001), and those living with their children (β = 0.452, p < 0.001). The mediating mechanism test results reported that exercise frequency (β = 0.037, p < 0.05) and exercise duration (β = 0.063, p < 0.001) were two positive mediating pathways for smart wearable devices to affect the health of the elderly.Conclusions: This study reveals the positive impact of smart wearable devices on the physical health level of the older people. To maximize benefits, we propose a dual-path optimization strategy: (1) Develop age-appropriate functions and use methods to improve device accessibility among elderly people, and (2) Generate a personalized exercise prescription for the older people to promote regular physical activity and exercise habits to improve their health level
Keywords: Wearable electronic devices, Aged, Health, Exercise, China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey
Received: 17 Feb 2025; Accepted: 11 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Guo, He and Zheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Shiyi He, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
Lan Zheng, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.