{"id":640238,"date":"2013-01-28T00:01:43","date_gmt":"2013-01-28T05:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=604777"},"modified":"2013-01-28T00:01:43","modified_gmt":"2013-01-28T05:01:43","slug":"70-percent-of-americans-track-their-health-but-most-go-low-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/640238","title":{"rendered":"70 percent of Americans track their health, but most go low-tech"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may just be early adopter tech types who log every step they take or calorie they burn using\u00a0Fitbits<\/a>, Nike Fuelbands<\/a>, and\u00a0other\u00a0devices<\/a>, but that hardly means they\u2019re the only ones who track their health.<\/p>\n

About 7 in 10 American adults told the Pew Internet & American Life<\/a>\u00a0Project that they track a health indicator like weight, diet, exercise or a symptom. But despite growing buzz around the \u201cquantified self\u201d movement and the explosion of gadgets and apps that help people measure and analyze everything from their activity and sleep patterns to blood glucose levels and other vital signs, just a small slice of health trackers rely on high tech devices.<\/p>\n

Indeed, according to the study released Monday, which was conducted via telephone and included 3,014 adults, nearly half of the trackers don\u2019t use any kind of external tool at all.<\/p>\n

Pew reports that 49 percent of the trackers said they track their progress \u201cin their heads,\u201d while 34 percent said they record the data on paper (for example, in a notebook or journal) and just 21 percent said they use some form of technology to track their health data. Respondents were allowed to provide more than one response, which is why the total is greater than 100 percent.\u00a0 But Pew said it considers 50 percent of respondents to be \u201cformal trackers\u201d who log their data in an organized way with notebooks or apps and 44 percent to be \u201cinformal trackers\u201d who only record progress in their heads.<\/p>\n

A benchmark for the future<\/h2>\n

A Pew study from 2011 looked at the health tracking behaviors of U.S. Internet users<\/a>, finding that a quarter of them track their health online. But Susannah Fox, Pew\u2019s associate director of digital strategy, said this is the first national survey measuring health data tracking among the general population. As digital tools for monitoring health data continue to proliferate, this survey can provide a benchmark against which future progress can be measured.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got this massive potential of a market and yet we still have relatively low uptake,\u201d Fox said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have the answers in terms of what will change their minds or entice them to change their habits. What we do know now is how many people are doing it and already what impact that is having. Maybe in the future, if people can be seduced to upgrade to fancier technology that will actually move the needle on their heath outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Implications for digital health companies<\/h2>\n

For companies pushing health-monitoring technology, Pew\u2019s study could strengthen their case, as it shows that tracking can make a difference. For example:<\/p>\n