TY  - JOUR
AU  - Mylonopoulou, Vasiliki
AU  - Cerna, Katerina
AU  - Weilenmann, Alexandra
AU  - Rost, Mattias
AU  - Holmlund, Tobias
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/4/15
TI  - Experiences of Wheelchair Users With Spinal Cord Injury With Self-Tracking and Commercial Self-Tracking Technology (“In Our World, Calories Are Very Important”): Qualitative Interview Study
JO  - JMIR Hum Factors
SP  - e65207
VL  - 12
KW  - wheelchair
KW  - spinal cord injury
KW  - tracking
KW  - self-tracking
KW  - wellness technology
KW  - calories
KW  - health inequalities
KW  - inclusive design in mobile health
KW  - design
KW  - lifestyle app
KW  - artificial intelligence
KW  - AI
AB  - Background: Commercial wearable and mobile wellness apps and devices have become increasingly affordable and ubiquitous. One of their aims is to assist the individual wearing them in adopting a healthier lifestyle through tracking and visualizing their data. Some of these devices and apps have a wheelchair mode that indicates that they are designed for different types of bodies (eg, wheelchair users with spinal cord injury [SCI]). However, research focuses mainly on designing and developing new condition-specific self-tracking technology, whereas the experiences of wheelchair users with SCI using self-tracking technology remain underexplored. Objective: The objectives of this study were to (1) provide a comprehensive overview of the literature in the field of self-tracking technology and wheelchair users (as a basis for the study), (2) present the self-tracking needs of wheelchair users with SCI, and (3) present their experiences and use of commercial self-tracking technology. Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews with wheelchair users with SCI to understand their experiences with self-tracking and self-tracking technologies, their self-tracking needs, and how they changed before and after the injury. The interviews were thematically analyzed using an inductive approach. Results: Our findings comprised three themes: (1) being a wheelchair user with SCI, (2) reasons for self-tracking, and (3) experiences with self-tracking technologies and tools. The last theme comprised 3 subthemes: self-tracking technology use, trust in self-tracking technology, and calorie tracking. Conclusions: In the Discussion section, we present how our findings relate to the literature and discuss the lack of trust in commercial self-tracking technologies regarding calorie tracking, as well as the role of wheelchair users with SCI in the design of commercial self-tracking technology. 
SN  - 2292-9495
UR  - https://humanfactors.jmir.org/2025/1/e65207
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/65207
DO  - 10.2196/65207
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/65207
ER  -