A new health app survey by Accenture suggests that the number of consumers using health apps has doubled in the past two years, with 33% using health apps & 20% using health wearables.
These findings come from a health app survey commissioned by Accenture and performed by Nielsen of 8,000 people in seven countries including 2,225 in the United States. Responses were collected using an online survey between November, 2015 and January, 2016.
Compared to a similar health app survey two years ago, they found that 33% of respondents said they were using a health app and 21% were using a health wearable. That’s up from 16% and 9% respectively in 2014. Most of the apps being used were fitness and diet/nutrition apps though 25% reported using a health tracker app, 12% a medication tracker app, and 10% a chronic disease management app. Not surprisingly, younger people (between 18 – 34 years old) were the most likely to use a health app or wearable.
Perhaps most interesting though were the findings related to doctor recommendations to use an app or wearable. Nearly 20% of participants were asked by their doctors to use an app or wearable to track fitness or a vital sign. Among those individuals, more than 75% followed through. Nearly 80% of respondents said they were either already using these tools or would if their doctor asked them to. And a majority also said they’d be comfortable talking to their doctor about these tools & sharing data.
One important consideration in this health app survey is selection bias and whether respondents were representative of the population as a whole. At this time, further demographic information on the respondents is not available but we’ve contacted Accenture for more details.
That said, these findings as well as the others included in the report related to EHR data, reinforce the generally accepted notion that consumers are increasingly turning to digital health tools to manage their health. However, whether they are making the right choices is debatable, as highlighted by a recent study showing stunning inaccuracy of one of the most popular and highly rated health apps on the market.
As this survey indicates, patients are willing to talk to their doctors about how to integrate health apps & wearables into the management of their health. It’s important for clinicians then to learn how to guide patients in making these choices, including ways to quickly screen an app for potential use & ways to find apps worth recommending to their patients.
Source: Accenture
