User Acceptability of Design Concepts for a Life Sign Detection System

Abstract : The purpose of this study was to evaluate the user acceptability of four design concepts (e.g., textile chest belt, rubber chest belt, vest, and adhesive patch) for a LSDS in four groups of 15 soldiers (i.e., 60 soldiers). During the six days of testing, soldiers participated in a diverse set of military activities as part of their participation in the U.S. Army Expert Infantryman Badge (EIB) course. On the first day of testing, soldiers filled out a demographic survey and were fitted for each LSDS design concept. Over the next four days of testing (Days 2-5), each soldier wore each of the four design concepts for 24 h and completed a user acceptability survey containing yes/no and 9-point hedonic scale questions. On Day 6 of testing, each soldier completed a comparison survey comparing the four design concepts against one another on a 4-point rank order scale, with 1 as the best rank and 4 as the worst rank. A counter-balanced study design was used so that each group wore a different design concept on Days 2-5 of testing. The ambient environmental conditions were recorded each day of testing. In the user acceptability survey, 90% found the textile chest belt acceptable, 83% found the adhesive patch acceptable, 73% found the rubber chest belt acceptable, and 29% found the vest acceptable. The percentage that found the vest acceptable was lower (P <0.05) than all other design concepts. The percentage that found the rubber chest belt acceptable was also lower (P <0.05) than the percentage that found the textile chest belt acceptable. There were no differences between the textile chest belt and adhesive patch in overall user acceptability. In the comparison survey, the textile chest belt (mean LSD) (l.7+/-0.7) and adhesive patch (2.1 +/- 1.2) were ranked the best in the overall user acceptability category and the rubber chest belt (2.6+/-0.7) and vest (3.5+/-0.9) were ranked the worst.