Even with charity or cash incentives, activity trackers do not appear to improve health

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-10/tl-tld100316.php

Public Release: 4-Oct-2016
The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology: Even with charity or cash incentives, activity trackers do not appear to improve health
The Lancet

Cash incentives helped increase exercise levels at 6 months, but not enough to benefit health, and 90% of participants stopped using the devices once incentives stopped

Regularly using an activity tracker (or pedometer) that monitors and provides feedback on physical activity does not increase activity levels enough to benefit health, even with the incentive of a financial reward, according to a randomised trial involving 800 full-time workers, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

"Over the course of the year-long study, volunteers who wore the activity trackers recorded no change in their step count but moderately increased their amount of aerobic activity by an average of 16 minutes per week. However, we found no evidence that the device promoted weight loss or improved blood pressure or cardiorespiratory fitness, either with or without financial incentives", explains lead author Professor Eric Finkelstein from Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore. "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."

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