Dark Daily: Recent Study Looks at How Consumers Use Wearables That Generate Biometric data and Whether Such Data Might Be Valuable for Physicians and Medical Laboratories

“… With the popularity of activity trackers on the rise, researchers are examining their usage patterns to determine how the devices are being utilized, their target market, and ways to encourage sustained use of the gadgets. A recent article published in Annals of Internal Medicine provided insight regarding who is using this type of wearable device, how activity trackers are being employed, and the length of time consumers will maintain their usage. The research was spearheaded by Mitesh Patel, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Health Care Management, Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He believes this is the largest study of its kind to evaluate the usage of wearable fitness trackers. ‘Many people are excited by the potential of using activity trackers to monitor healthy behaviors, but there is very little evidence on who is using them and whether or not use is sustained over time,’ Patel stated in a Penn Medicine news release. ‘We found that, though use grew over time, it really varied depending on individual characteristics like age and income. We also found that once someone started using an activity tracker, sustained use at six months was high at 80%.'” Read more at Dark Daily.