New research has found that physical activity monitors like fitness applications and wearable devices have helped increase activity levels in adults. The study was published in The BMJ Journal. The effects are small to moderate. However, findings suggested that these devices may be useful at a time when many adults don’t meet recommended activity levels.
Modern physical activity monitoring devices have the potential to change people’s behaviour, however, studies looking at their effectiveness have often reached different conclusions. Researchers in Denmark searched databases for trials comparing activity levels in adults who received feedback from physical activity monitors with control interventions in which no feedback was provided.
They found 121 randomised controlled trials involving 16,743 mainly healthy 18 to 65-year-olds. Most of the trials were European (31 per cent) or North American (40 per cent) with a median intervention period of 12 weeks. The median age of study participants was 47 years, with a higher proportion of women (median 77 per cent) than men. Overall, the interventions showed a moderate effect on physical activity (equivalent to 1,235 daily steps), a small effect on moderate to vigorous physical activity (equivalent to 48.5 weekly minutes) and a small but insignificant effect on sedentary time (equal to 9.9 daily minutes).
The researchers acknowledged that the included trials varied in design and methods and said that the results may not apply to lower-income countries.
