Wearable fitness trackers such as Fitbits ‘may not actually make you any healthier’

WEARING fitness trackers such as Fitbits may not actually bring a significant benefit to your health, new research has said.

Experts have concluded that the devices did not appear to improve the health outcomes of 800 people who wore them for a year, for the study.

Researchers looked at people aged 21 to 65 in Singapore as they wore the trackers and got on with their daily lives for one year, but found that it did not increase activity levels to make enough of a difference.

The study was published in the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.

People taking part in the study were put into four groups - one with no tracker, a group which wore Fitbit Zip and the two final groups were given trackers and offered financial rewards for the first six months of the trial.

Their levels of activity were monitored each week and their weight, blood-pressure and cardio-respiratory fitness was taken at the start of the study, and then six and 12 months later.

But it was found to offer no significant improvement.

The incentive of earning cash was a clear indication of increased activity, with those in the cash group taking 11,010 daily steps in the first six months, the charity group taking 9,280 steps and the Fitbit group taking 8,550.

After a year, those in the cash incentive group had returned to the same levels of physical activity that they recorded at the start of the trial.

But by contrast, those in the Fitbit group showed improved levels of physical activity, recording an average of an additional 16 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week than they did at the start of the trial.

However, the authors said that this increase was "probably not enough to generate noticeable improvements in any health outcomes".

The authors wrote: "Wearable activity trackers are becoming increasingly popular. However, our results show that they are unlikely to be a panacea for rising rates of chronic disease.

"Although the trackers seem to have been effective at stemming a reduction in physical activity seen in participants in the control group at 12 months, we identified no evidence of improved health outcomes."

Lead author Professor Eric Finkelstein from Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore said: "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."

Meanwhile a study published in September in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) concluded that people who used a wearable technology devices lost less weight than those who take part in standard weight loss techniques.

Last month Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that data from health apps and wearable activity trackers such as Fitbits would feed directly into people's personal health records.

Mr Hunt said that a new list of NHS-approved health apps and other technology would be able to be linked directly into patient records.

A spokeswoman for Fitbit said: "As the leader in connected health and fitness, we are confident in the positive results our millions of users have seen from using Fitbit products.

"Numerous published studies, along with internal Fitbit data, continue to demonstrate the health benefits of using a fitness tracker combined with a mobile app to support health and fitness goals.

"Fitbit continues to invest in the development of new devices and innovative motivational tools and social features to further enhance user engagement and help individuals achieve their health and fitness goals."

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