Health Apps Could Be Doing More Harm Than Good, Warn Scientists (theguardian.com)

According to several scientists, fitness apps might be doing more harm than good because they don't work but force people to focus on ambitious goals that they will never reach. Some are so appalled by these apps that they have called it "snake oil salesmen of the 1860s." From a report on The Guardian: Greg Hager, professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University, said that in the absence of trials or scientific grounding it was impossible to say whether apps were having the intended effect. "I am sure that these apps are causing problems," he told the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston. [...] Hager claimed the 10,000 steps target dated back to a 1960s Japanese study that showed there were health benefits for men who burned at least 2,000 calories per week through exercise -- roughly equivalent to 10,000 steps each day. An early pedometer was known as the manpo-kei, which means "10,000-step meter" in Japanese. "But is that the right number for any of you in this room?" Hager asked. "Who knows. It's just a number that's now built into the apps." "We have an incredible number of apps in the wild basically being downloaded by people who may or may not understand what they are actually telling them or what the context for that is," he said. "Until we have evidence-based apps you could amplify issues. I mean, imagine everyone thinks they have to do 10,000 steps but you are not actually physically capable of doing that, you could actually cause harm or damage by doing so."

Comments

They get you off your ass

[presidenteloco]

Scientific study of the benefit or harm is good. No doubt.

But, from a common sense 30,000 foot perspective, if there is even the slightest effect among the majority of these apps of embarrassing you into getting off your ass a little more often, isn't that likely to be a net health positive?

Re:They get you off your ass

[thegarbz]

Answering questions like that is why we need scientific study. The answer could quite well vary greatly depending on the individual.

Let me help you with that. The science has been settled on that study long ago. Exercise and movement = good. It's right up there with the climate is changing, gravity exists, and the air is breathable. There's not been a single scientific study that says exercise and movement is bad and it isn't back by any medical principles either.

Now the amount of benefit will likely vary but that's not what was being discussed, what was being discussed is that health apps come with a default setting and that setting is bad and we need science to determine a solution to suit everyone. That, my friend, is absurd.

Also answering whether having an app tell you to get off your ass actually does get you off your ass will vary greatly.

Science can not help you there. But having the app certainly doesn't produce a negative result there either, and if you are really contrarian you probably wouldn't have the app in the first place.

Overstated

[xeos]

The example of 10,000 steps being too much for some people seems like a silly criticism. It's like saying just because some people are missing a finger, (5-fingered) gloves are bad.

Not to say that research isn't needed, just that decrying something for not being a universal solution is pretty weak.

Re:Leave it to the scientists....

[Gavagai80]

If your doctor hasn't already told you not to eat certain foods because of your liver, how does the app have any more probability of harming you than your own subjectively selected diet? If the doctor has warned you but you weren't listening, then how is the app any more likely to be harmful than your own subjectively selected diet?