Consumer Behavior in Health Wearables Technologies: A Bibliometric Approach
Journal
Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems
Emerging Research in Intelligent Systems
Date Issued
2026
Type
Book chapter
Abstract
Health Wearable Technologies (HWT), including smartwatches, fitness trackers, and telehealth platforms, have become a new generation of tools for preventive healthcare and chronic disease management. This study uses bibliometric analysis to explore the intellectual structure and thematic evolution of HWT research, and it analyzes 315 peer-reviewed articles from Scopus in the fields of business, social sciences, and medicine. The results show that there are two distinct growth phases: slow growth at the end of the twentieth century and fast growth after 2000 due to the development of human-computer interaction. HWT research is inherently multidisciplinary, with 55.36% of publications coming from social sciences, business, and medical disciplines. The United States leads the world in scholarly output, with 35.87% of documents, while developing regions are underrepresented. Science mapping via VOSviewer reveals two thematic clusters: (1) clinical and ethical dynamics (e.g., physician-patient relationships, data validity), and (2) consumer-market interactions (e.g., usability, direct-to-consumer models). These clusters capture the struggles between medical authority and patient autonomy as well as the increasing impact of user experience (UX) in non-clinical contexts. The study emphasizes the need for multidisciplinary collaboration to address HWT’s complexity and highlights the need for more research in developing economies to ensure global applicability. Two actionable recommendations are proposed: (1) combining clinical utility with commercial viability through UX-driven design, and (2) addressing ethical biases in doctor-patient interactions when HWT interacts. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.