Wearing a fitness tracker may help you keep tabs on how many steps you take, but the devices themselves - even with the lure of a cash reward - probably won’t improve your health, according to the biggest study yet done on the trendy technology.
Scientists say that although the activity trackers may boost the number of steps people take, it probably isn’t enough to help them drop pounds or improve overall health.
“These are basically measuring devices,” said Eric Finkelstein, a professor at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, who led the research. “Knowing how active you are doesn’t translate into getting people to do more and the novelty of having that information wears off pretty quickly.”
After a year, 90 percent of the participants in the study had abandoned the device. Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for Fitbit
The Associated Press
Author
Author’s Selected Articles
