Digital health tools such as mobile apps, websites, and text messages can significantly improve health and wellbeing by keeping people active, boosting steps, and improving diet and sleep, according to a new study.
Looking at data from 206,873 people across 47 studies, researchers have found these digital health tools can help people achieve health goals such as more exercise and physical activity, improved sleep quality and improved diet, for example.
Lead researcher, UniSA’s Dr Ben Singh, commented: “With the rise of preventable chronic diseases like obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes, finding mechanisms that can help reduce people’s risk is important.
“Our study found that digital and mobile health interventions can have a positive effect on people’s health and wellbeing, not only helping them to increase their physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour, but also improving their diet and quality of sleep.
“Given the wide accessibility and popularity of health apps, their capability to tailor information and deliver timely reminders and prompts, and scalability to diverse populations, they could be a very effective intervention to promote better health.
“Making positive changes to your health and wellbeing can be a challenge – it’s always easier to add kilos to your waistline, than it is to reduce them – but by incorporating digital tools into your everyday life, you’re more likely to achieve positive outcomes.”
The research identified consistent findings across different age groups, health behaviours, interventions, and health populations, indicating that digital health apps could help underpin broader public health campaigns.
While researchers recommend further investigation to better understand impacts among specific groups of people, at top line, digital health apps appear to be a win-win for all.
