A review and a collective data analysis have found that smartphone fitness apps and wearable activity trackers help in boosting the physical activity levels. The review has been published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The researchers say, the size of the effect is small to moderate, but it may be worth offering them on recommendation to motivated patients, given the importance for the health of increasing daily physical activity by any amount.
Globally, more than a quarter of adults don’t meet recommended physical activity levels. The leading cause of death worldwide is due to physical idleness which is thought to cost billions of dollars every year.
Some of the most effective strategies to increase physical activity include behaviour change techniques, like self-monitoring and feedback, which smartphone apps and wearable activity trackers can provide.
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Smartphone ownership is prevalent, with activity trackers and fitness apps used by around one third of US and UK adults. But the reviews to date of theses apps and trackers haven’t produced consistent conclusions.
To plug these knowledge spaces, the researchers trawled research databases looking for relevant studies published between January 2007 and January 2020, concerning healthy 18-to-65-year-olds with no long term conditions.
They conducted 35 suitable comparative studies, that involved a total of 7454 people, 2107 (28 percent) of whom were women. The intervention period lasted between 2 and 40 weeks, averaging 13 weeks.
Collecting the data from 28 of these studies showed that contrasted with other approaches, smartphone apps or activity trackers increased physical activity by an average of 1850 steps a day.
Seven further additional analyses of the data also showed that smartphone apps and activity trackers significantly increased physical activity levels.
The apps and tracker programmes that also included text-messaging involving prompts and cues, and modified features, were more effective. And certain components, such as goal setting, planning, and tasks graded by degree of difficulty, were significantly associated with greater levels of effectiveness.
The researchers acknowledged that the included studies varied in different design and methods, while the quality ranged from low to moderate level. And given the relatively small number of women involved, the results may not be widely applicable to both sexes.
Nevertheless, “Interventions using smartphone apps or activity trackers seem promising from a clinical and public health perspective, promoting a significant step count increase of 1850 steps/day,” they write.
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“These results are of public health importance according to recent evidence showing that any physical activity, regardless of intensity, is associated with lower mortality risk in a dose-response manner and that an increase of 1700 steps/day is significantly associated with lower mortality rates.”
Enabling users to move beyond the initial ‘novelty phase’ will depend on the quality of the experience, overall utility, and the ability to integrate with other devices and services, they add. But they emphasize: “Given the wide and increasing reach of smartphones, even modest improvements in physical activity can produce large effects at the population level.”
They conclude that their findings are likely to be helpful to clinicians, “who may prescribe apps and trackers as part of a shared decision-making process to individuals who seem ready to make behavioural changes.”
