concern to the users, its their ability to keep us aware of where we are and what we are doing and encourage us to make small changes to our lives that can have a big impact.
A big question for the article is what was happening to all this data. We’ re probably all part of one of the biggest health studies on the planet at present, we just don ' t know it. Apple have already made efforts in the pass to use their technology to push through advances in Health, so we can imagine that sometime in the future the data our devices churn out might begin to become quite valuable.
A study run by a Medical School in Singapore offered participants either cash incentives, donations to charity or no incentive at all to reach daily step counts. Interestingly it found that those in the no-incentives group actually increased their activity more than the two other groups and were on average taking part in 16 minutes more vigorous exercise a week a year later.
However, the study also showed that the devices did not promote weight loss, improved blood pressure or cardiorespiratory fitness. The study also showed that after 6 months 40 % of people stopped using the activity tracker and at 12 months only 10 % were still avid users.
When approached with this study, a spokesman for Fitbit said they were confident in the results that their devices produced and that they were continuing to invest in the development of new devices and innovative motivation tools.
So we are at a bit of a crossroads, over 3 million fitness devices were purchased in the UK in 2015, and the market shows no sign of slowing up. There is conflicting research out there, and with continued investment in the development of new devices, perhaps we will see further innovation which will begin to produce results.
There is no doubt that these devices can motivate us to become active, the question which stands, is how long can they continue to keep us engaged, and will we ever see them contributing to improving our overall health and wellbeing.
At present I imagine many students are religiously adhering to the daily targets in pursuit of some new year goals, but falling in line with the study, I wonder how many of us will be still using them come the Summer break.
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# lookafteryourself