Smartwatch Uses for Health and Wellness

Reeder and colleagues conducted a systematic review of smartwatch studies that engaged people in their use to improve health and wellness. Seventeen studies published between 2014 and 2016 were included in their review. Most health studies employed the use of consumer-grade smart watches (82%) with Samsung Gear model smartwatches as the most commonly used devices (29%) in studies. Four studies used accelerometers to detect step counts and reported the feasibility of collecting reliable step counts from the device. Three studies used accelerometry to detect seizures or tremors in epilepsy patients. Other studies examined activity monitoring, heart rate monitoring, speech therapy adherence, diabetes self-management, scratching, eating, and medication-taking behaviors. (Reeder, 2016).

Scientists from Austria developed a smartwatch-based system for elderly for fall detection, inactivity recognition, and medication adherence. The system is also capable of providing a way of manually calling for help. The assistance system consists of a Pebble smartwatch that communicates with an Android smartphone via Bluetooth. In case of emergency situations alerts are sent to configurable emergency contacts via text messages (Deutsch, M., & Burgsteiner, H., 2016).

A group of international scientists developed a diabetes patient self-management tool using smartwatches. The system provided a two-way communication between the applications on the smartwatch and mobile phone for people with type 1 diabetes. The designed smartwatch system using Pebble allows for users to record data on carbohydrates, insulin, and blood glucose, with the option to view previously recorded data. Users were able to record specific physical activities, program reminders, and automatically record and transfer data, including step counts, to the mobile phone version of the diabetes diary. In this study about this tool, users reported usefulness and responded positively toward its functionalities (Årsand, E., Muzny, M., Bradway, M., Muzik, J., & Hartvigsen, G., 2015).

Although studies that employ smart watches for health and wellness applications generally reported encouraging results, they were conducted mainly in studies with small sample sizes, and with no comparison groups. The technical function, acceptability, and effectiveness of smartwatches in supporting of health and wellness have to be confirmed in larger, better studies that include real-world participants.

Some researchers are skeptical about the accuracy of the device in monitoring health and wellness activities, but there has been little evaluation. A study conducted by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania evaluated the accuracy of smartphone applications and wearable devices compared with direct observation of step counts. The scientists found that the relative difference in mean step count ranged from −22.7% to −1.5% for the wearable devices like smartwatches, and −6.7% to 6.2% for smartphone applications, as compared with direct observation. These differences seem acceptable for step counts and the findings helped reinforce individuals’ trust in using smartphone applications and wearable devices to track health behaviors (Case MA, Burwick HA, Volpp KG, & Patel MS., 2015).