Poorer People Get Little Benefit from Digital Activity Trackers

Devices that nudge the rich and middle class to exercise don't offer same boost to those with lower incomes. View in browser

Image credits: Shutterstock Poorer People Get Little Benefit from Digital Activity Trackers Devices that nudge the rich and middle class to exercise don't offer same boost to those with lower incomes. Brian Owens, Contributor November 24, 2021                                                                                                                                                                                (Inside Science) -- Technologies like smartwatches, mobile apps and websites have been touted as an accessible and effective way for people to monitor and increase their physical activity and improve their health. But a new analysis has found that that is really only true for people of high socioeconomic status. As with so many other areas of healthcare, poorer people appear to see little to no benefit from these digital interventions. "Even though people might have the same access to these interventions, we're still seeing this pernicious inverse care law -- the people who need this stuff most are least likely to receive it in an effective way," said Mark Kelson, who studies health statistics at the University of Exeter in the U.K. Kelson and his colleagues analyzed the data from 19 different studies conducted around the world between 1990 and 2020 that looked at digital interventions intended to help increase physical activity and improve health... Read more Copyright 2021 American Institute of Physics. Inside Science syndicates its articles, columns, blogs and videos to news organizations. To initiate syndication, or request permission to republish our content (on a one-time or continuing basis), please contact Inside Science at insidescience@aip.org. News organizations seeking permission to republish Inside Science content must fully credit Inside Science as the original source of the content, include the author byline, and republish the original, unaltered form (excluding content titles, headlines, or sub-headlines). The reprint format can be seen here. Copyright conditions and usage terms are subject to change at any time without consent or any type of prior notice. To unsubscribe from all future mailings from Inside Science please click here. To manage your email subscriptions please click here.

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