Activity trackers or pedometers that monitor daily physical activity do nothing to improve your health, a new study suggests.
Research published in medical journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology found no evidence that such technology, despite its popularity, led to weight loss or improved blood pressure even when financial incentives were offered.
Over the course of the year-long study, study participants who wore activity trackers, like the fitbit, recorded no change in their step count and increased their amount of aerobic activity by an average of just 16 minutes per week.
"While there was some progress early on, once the incentives were stopped, volunteers did worse than if the incentives had never been offered, and most stopped wearing the trackers," said lead author Professor Eric Finkelstein from the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.
For the first six months, the 800 participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups: the control group; the Fitbit group who received an activity tracker and a weekly payment of $4; and the charity and cash incentive groups who received a tracker plus $15 for every week that they logged between 50000 and 70000 steps, or $30 if they recorded more than 70000 steps to donate to a charity of their choice or keep themselves.
In the subsequent six months of the study, participants could continue to wear their activity trackers, but were not offered an incentive.
During the first six months, only participants in the cash incentive group recorded increases in physical activity, performing on average an additional 13 minutes of moderate physical activity per week, or and extra 570 steps per day.
After 12 months, however, their activity levels reduced significantly.
Health outcomes did not improve for any of the groups at either six or 12 months.
The most telling aspect of the results was that just 10 per cent of the participants were still wearing the trackers after 12 months.
Approximately 40 per cent had ditched the devices after six months.
""We saw a large drop-off in usage as the study went on. People use these devices for a while, but with time the novelty wears off - this is consistent with how people use trackers in real life," said co-author Professor Robert Sloan.
The research follows a similar study published last week.
According to a study from the University of Washington, many respondents reported feelings of relief after doing away with their activity trackers.
