A boom in fitness trackers won’t lead to a boom in physical activity

Global sales of fitness trackers have grown from $14 billion in 2017 to more than $36 billion in 2020. The rapid success of these gadgets suggests that more people than ever see some value in monitoring the number of steps they take or the number of stairs they climb. , sitting time and calories burned.

The makers of these devices want consumers to believe that by tracking their fitness and health-related behaviors, they can increase their activity levels and become healthier.

An analysis of research published in the last 25 years suggests otherwise.

We are professors of kinesiology, the science of human movement, at Boise State University, the University of Tennessee, and the University of North Florida. To find out if and how physical activity has changed in the years since fitness trackers became popular, his 20 studies from several developed countries conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic. Over a year of research was analyzed.

A systematic review of data from eight developed countries around the world found that physical activity declined from 1995 to 2017, despite a surge in sales of fitness trackers. A pervasive trend.

survey review

To conduct this study, we first searched for published studies that tracked physical activity such as walking, housework, and sports throughout the day. We obtained two snapshots of his daily activity from the population and sought studies in which the measurements were at least one year apart.

We found 16 studies from 8 different countries (Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and the United States) that met these criteria. The survey was conducted between 1995 and 2017.

It’s important to note that these snapshots do not track specific individuals. Rather, they followed a sample of people in the same age group—for example, one Japanese study of physical activity in adults aged 20 to her 90 collected data from people in each age group each year for 22 years. doing.

Scientists tracked participants’ physical activity using a variety of wearable devices, from simple pedometer pedometers to more sophisticated activity monitors like accelerometers.

Study groups ranged from large nationally representative samples of tens of thousands of people to small samples of hundreds of students from several local schools.

After identifying the research studies, we calculated the effect size for each study. Effect size is a way to adjust data so that like-for-like comparisons can be made. We used data reported in studies to calculate effect sizes. These include average physical activity at the beginning and end of each study, sample size, and a measure of physical activity variability. Using a technique called meta-analysis, this allowed us to combine the results of all studies to derive overall trends.

Overall, researchers documented fairly consistent decreases in physical activity and found similar decreases in each region and gender. Overall, from 1995 to 2017, the decline in physical activity per person he exceeded 1,100 steps per day.

Our most striking finding is that physical activity among adolescents aged 11 to 19 declined precipitously by about 30% over the course of one generation. For example, when comparing studies reporting physical activity in steps per day, total steps per day per decade averaged 608 steps per day for adults, 823 steps per day for children, and 823 steps per day for adolescents. was found to decrease 1,497 steps per day. .

Our study does not address why physical activity has declined over the past 25 years. However, the studies we reviewed mentioned several factors.

Staring at screens more often, less walking or biking

Among adolescents, decreased physical activity was associated with increased ownership and use of smartphones, tablets, video games, and social media.

For example, in the United States, screen time among adolescents increased dramatically, from 5 hours per day in 1999 to 8.8 hours per day in 2017.

At school, most of the physical activity that young people do traditionally comes from physical education classes. However, changes in the frequency of physical education classes during the study period have been inconsistent and vary from country to country.

All of these factors may help explain the decline in physical activity observed in our study.

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In addition, fewer adults and children walk or bike to school or work than they did 25 years ago. For example, in the late 1960s, most of her five to her 14-year-old children in the United States rode bicycles or walked to school. Since then, this active mode of transportation has largely been replaced by car travel. The use of school buses and public transport has changed little.

So why use a fitness tracker?

So, as fitness tracking becomes more popular, and levels of physical activity decline, why are these gadgets useful?

Fitness trackers help people become more aware of their daily physical activity. However, these devices are only part of the solution to address the problem of a sedentary lifestyle. They are facilitators, not facilitators of behavior change.

A decline in a person’s physical activity opens the door to lower overall fitness levels and other health problems such as obesity and diabetes. give. The first step to increasing active movement is the measurements these devices can take. However, successfully increasing overall physical activity requires several additional components, including goal setting, self-monitoring, positive feedback, and social support.Rappler.com

This article originally appeared on The Conversation.

Scott A. Conger, Associate Professor of Exercise Physiology, Boise State University

David Bassett, Professor and Head of Kinesiology, Recreation and Sports Studies, University of Tennessee

Lindsay Toth, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, University of North Florida

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