Darcy Ummels

46 | Chapter 3 experiences regarding user ‐ friendliness as well as acceptability and usefulness in daily practice. Feasibility aspects such as user ‐ friendliness and sustained use of activity trackers have been studied in healthy adults 15 ‐ 22 and the elderly. 23 ‐ 28 From these studies it appears that in general, healthy adults and the elderly are open and positive towards the use of activity trackers. However, most studies argue that more attention should be paid to user experiences and lack of technical skills of the user. This may also lead to a more sustained use of the activity trackers in daily life. By contrast, little is known about the experiences with activity trackers embedded in the healthcare of people with chronic diseases. Only two studies have described several important experiences and needs of people with a chronic disease, such as wearing comfort, feedback, validity, reliability and the added value of feedback. 29,30 However, they did not focus on the experiences with the use of the activity trackers in healthcare. To incorporate activity trackers in healthcare, like physiotherapy treatment, insight into feasibility from the perspective of people with a chronic disease who use activity trackers in a healthcare setting must be generated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe how patients with a chronic disease experienced the use of commercially available activity trackers embedded in physiotherapy. Methods A qualitative design was used, based on the tenets of qualitative inquiry 31 , using interviews and a focus group discussion to collect data. A framework study was used to analyze the data. Participants Participants were people with chronic diseases under treatment by physiotherapist. The inclusion criteria were diagnosed with at least one of the following chronic diseases: cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes mellitus (DM), chronic pain, cancer or osteoarthritis. Exclusion criteria were: insufficient understanding of the Dutch language, use of a walking aid, or an asymmetrical gait. Participants were recruited via purposive sampling 32 based on their chronic disease from two physiotherapy practices (Fysiotherapie Schaesberg and ParaMedisch Centrum Zuid) and a rehabilitation center (Adelante Zorggroep) in The Netherlands. All participants provided written informed consent after receiving verbal and written information about