Even Small Changes Can Have Meaningful Impact on Health The devices and apps were the main tools for motivating and measuring physical activity in the studies, but in most of the trials participants also got support, encouragement, and help with goal setting and problem-solving from other participants or from study leaders via meetings, phone calls, emails, or text messages.Īfter a mean follow-up period of 13 weeks (length of the trials ranged from 2 to 40 weeks), app and tracker users were more active than control groups, based on daily step counts. Previous research suggests that the older types of devices led to small to moderate increases in activity levels the aim of this review was to see if the newer technology made a difference, the study authors note. Much of the existing work has also been done in people with chronic medical conditions. It focused on newer technology that tracks activity and gives feedback automatically, in contrast to older devices that had to be connected to a computer to upload exercise data, according to the study. This analysis is one of the first to look at the use of newer trackers and apps by healthy people. Some of the measures included: daily step counts, minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, weekly days exercised, minutes per week of total physical activity, or a measure of oxygen uptake by the body during exercise. The studies measured the effectiveness of the devices through participants’ self-reports and from data collected directly from the apps and trackers or from research-grade accelerometers that also tracked participants’ activity levels. Laranjo and the research team analyzed the results of studies conducted between 20 in women and men ages 18 to 65 who used a variety of smartphone apps (including Moves and Accupedo-Pro) or wearable trackers (including Fitbit, Fitbug, Withings Activité Steel, and Jawbone) - and included a control group who did not use devices. Analysis Focused on New Technology and Healthy Adultsĭr.
“Continuously monitoring your progress and receiving feedback from an app or tracker can lead to significant changes in overall physical activity,” says lead researcher Liliana Laranjo, MD, PhD, a research fellow on the faculty of medicine and health at the University of Sydney’s Westmead Applied Research Centre in Australia. The wearable trackers and downloadable apps worked best when they provided feedback on progress, enabled users to set personal goals or reminded users to get active via text messages, according to the study, published December 2020 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Can a wearable fitness tracker or smartphone app really prod you to exercise more - and stick with it? In a new analysis of 28 studies involving 7,454 people, using these popular digital physical-activity aids was linked to users logging an extra 1,850 steps per day compared with non-users (nearly a mile more).Īnd the fitness app and tracker users were still moving significantly more 13 weeks later.
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