Title: Examining the influence of health consciousness and privacy concerns on Gen-Z's adoption of wearable fitness trackers: a TAM and TRA perspective

Authors: A.K. Subramani; N. Akbar Jan; Nishit Kumar Srivastava; Namrata Chatterjee

Addresses: Saveetha School of Management, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai – 600077, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Human Resource and Organisational Behaviour, ICFAI Business School (IBS) Hyderabad, ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE) (Deemed to be University u/s 3 of the UGC Act 1956), Hyderabad – 501203, Telangana, India ' Department of Operations and IT, ICFAI Business School (IBS) Hyderabad, ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE) (Deemed to be University u/s 3 of the UGC Act 1956), Hyderabad – 501203, Telangana, India ' Department of Human Resource and Organisational Behaviour, ICFAI Business School (IBS) Hyderabad, ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE) (Deemed to be University u/s 3 of the UGC Act 1956), Hyderabad – 501203, Telangana, India

Abstract: The research aimed to analyse the influence of technology, health consciousness (HC), and perceived privacy protection (PPP) on Gen-Z users' intention and adoption of wearable fitness trackers (WFTs). The structured online survey posted on social media platforms ended with 407 valid responses from Gen-Z users of the WFT from three major metropolitan cities in India, namely Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. This investigation followed a quantitative and cross-sectional research design by combining the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the theory of reasoned action (TRA) to understand the adoption intention of WFT. The outcome of the study exposed that HC (β = 0.46), attitude towards use (ATU) (β = 0.31), perceived usefulness (PU) (β = 0.30), and PPP (β = 0.14) had substantial direct effects on intention to use (ITU) of WFT. Among the antecedents of adoption intention, ATU shows a momentous positive direct effect on ITU and partially mediates the connection between HC and ITU as well as PU and ITU.

Keywords: health consciousness; perceived privacy protection; PPP; wearable fitness trackers; WTFs; wearable health devices; Gen-Z user.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBSR.2026.154657

International Journal of Business and Systems Research, 2026 Vol.20 No.3, pp.278 - 297

Received: 27 Apr 2025
Accepted: 10 Nov 2025
Published online: 09 Jul 2026 *

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