Ty Ferguson from the University of South Australia in Adelaide has been researching the effectiveness of activity trackers on improving physical activity.
Results from 400 studies were reviewed for this study, these studies included a total of 163,992 participants from all age groups in
. The studies involved people of all ages using an activity tracker, including a pedometer, accelerometer, activity monitor or a smartphone application for counting steps, to encourage more physical activity.
Analyses showed that activity trackers improved physical activity, body composition and fitness. Bottom line:
- 1800 extra steps per day,
- Walk more 40 min a day,
- reduction in body weight
of 1 kg.
"What was a nice surprise was how useful activity trackers are for such a wide variety of people, including all ages, healthy people and people living with a variety of chronic conditions."
They encourage people to exercise regularly, make it part of their routine and set goals to lose weight."
Our experience of using activity trackers
Many people think activity trackers can only be used with a limited group. We find in practice with Healthy Chronos that this is not true. Activity trackers make patients move more under the guidance of their physiotherapist. We experience this in all different chronic conditions such as COPD, dementia, claudication, atrosis, etc. In addition, we recognise that activity trackers can be used for all age groups. Thus, we monitor patients ranging from 25 to 92 years of age.
It is very interesting for us to see research that substantiates what we experience in practice.
