A NEW STUDY says that regularly using a fitness or activity tracker (such as a pedometer) does not increase activity levels enough to benefit your health.
The study, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, also shows that even when cash incentives are offered, they only increase activity levels for the first six months – which is not enough to benefit your long term health.
Once payments stopped, 90% of participants also stopped using the devices.
Fitness trackers are compact gadgets in the form of bracelets and watches that measure information such as your heart rate, the steps you take and calculate the calories you burn.
They have become increasingly popular lately as people use them to monitor the progress they’re making in an attempt to become more fit and lose weight, that might not be noticeable otherwise.
‘No evidence’ of effectiveness
The lead author of the study, Professor Eric Finkelstein from Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, said that although volunteers increased their aerobic activity by an average of 16 minutes per week, and that this “moderate improvement” was not enough to improve health levels.
However, we found no evidence that the device promoted weight loss or improved blood pressure or cardiorespiratory fitness, either with or without financial incentives.
“While there was some progress early on, once the incentives were stopped, volunteers did worse than if the incentives had never been offered, and most stopped wearing the trackers.”
More than half of adults in developed countries do not achieve recommended levels of physical activity – with 34% of Irish adults taking no kind of regular exercise at all.
One in four Irish children are categorised as obese, and Ireland is said to be on track to becoming the most obese country in Europe by 2030.
Despite the popularity of pedometers (or activity trackers) as a tool for motivating and monitoring activity levels, little research exists on whether they can help people lead healthier lives, or if financial incentives could encourage people to wear them for longer and achieve higher fitness levels.
One in ten US adults owns an activity tracker but research suggests that about a third of people abandon them within 6 months of purchase.
Analysis
According to the authors, these findings suggest that the type of financial incentive and how long it is in place is important to its effectiveness.
Our findings suggest that coupling the incentives to daily steps may not be the way to go. However, tying them to MVPA or aerobic steps is worth considering as these are the type of steps most likely to improve health.
“Yet, the results also suggest that any incentive strategy would need to be in place for a longer period of time to generate any noticeable improvements in health benefits and to avoid any undermining effect from their removal,” explains Professor Finkelstein.
Importantly, approximately 40% of participants stopped using the activity tracker in the first 6 months and just 10% were still wearing the tracker at 12 months.
“We saw a large drop off in usage as the study went on. People use these devices for a while, but with time the novelty wears off – this is consistent with how people use trackers in real life,” adds co-author Professor Robert Sloan from Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical & Dental Sciences, Kagoshima, Japan.
The study involved a randomised trial of 800 full-time workers from 13 companies in Singapore, aged between 21 and 65 years, and were monitored over a twelve-month period.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say