Last year I looked at an interesting study looking at the type of people who use mobile health apps. The study analyzed 137 of the highest rated health apps that are aimed at those with chronic conditions from both Apple and Google stores. Despite picking the cream of the crop however, the authors found that many of the apps struggled to reach patients living in challenging circumstances.
A similar conclusion was reached by a second study conducted by researchers at NYU School of Medicine into users of sleep tracking apps. It found that most users of such apps were not only affluent but also have a number of positive health habits.
Health apps provide a tantalising way for doctors to gain regular insights into the health of their patients, but if large portions of society are currently not using such devices, it risks creating a two-tier service. The study also casts some doubts on the usefulness of sleep apps themselves, and particularly the data provided to users.
“People are getting all this information on their sleep patterns and not really knowing how to interpret it, or even if it’s legitimate data,” the authors say.
How useful are sleep apps?
The study analyzed the behavior of nearly 1,000 smartphone users, with over 25% of them using a health app to track their sleep. The analysis revealed that sleep tracking tends to be done by nearly twice as many men as women, and the average age of health trackers was 34. What’s more, users with incomes of over $75,000 per year were much more likely to use health apps, and sleep tracking apps were among many other health apps installed on their device.
“Sleep apps are very popular among a diverse group of Americans, and they have a lot of them to choose from,” the team explain.
The trend towards self-monitoring our health via apps and wearable devices is growing. There are some doubts about the reliability of such tools however, as a recent study by the University of British Columbia casts doubt on the reliability of the data. It found that the pedometer built into the iPhone misses around 1,340 steps during a typical day when compared to a purpose-built accelerometer worn on the waist. It’s something the NYU plan to investigate in more depth in future work.
They’re confident however that if clinically validated, they can provide a hugely powerful tool in helping coach users into leading a healthier life, whilst also allowing medical staff to monitor patients between visits.
Whilst that seems likely from a technical perspective, more work clearly needs to be done to make such apps more attractive to the parts of society that currently don’t take advantage of them. That might be a slightly harder chasm to cross.
