Published in Mobiles

Half of Brits use health apps

by on13 October 2015


I am the Doctor

With the British government doing its best to gut the National Health Service, it appears that its citizens are turning to their smart-phones to find out what is wrong with them.

The news comes following the release of Apple's latest iOS 9 update allows users to track their sexual health and ovulation cycles, amongst other things.

In the case of an Apple phone the answer will be almost certainly that the user is a psychosomatic person who uses illnesses to get his mum's attention. We doubt it will ever need to track sexual health and will probably only be interested in the acne section.

Now the Digital Health Report by PushDoctor.co.uk found that checking medical symptoms, monitoring exercise levels, establishing individual BMI scores, monitoring heart rates and checking blood pressure are the top five most common ways we are now using technology to understand and manage our wellbeing.

Tracking calorie intake, measuring sleep quality, testing our vision, monitoring stress levels and moods also followed in the top 10. More than 71 per cent of British adults feel positive about using technology to better understand their bodies, their habits and how they can directly affect state of health, the report said.

In other words they believe the technology is helping them to be more aware of and more in control of their health - rather than too aware. Women are more likely to use the technology than men. Men, the data suggests, are late adopters.

Eren Ozagir, CEO and founder at PushDoctor.co.uk, said:

"We use technology to manage nearly every aspect of our lives - from socialising, to organising our finances and heating of our homes. The adoption of health-tech by the general population remains a natural next step; with more and more people discovering how their health information can be used to guide and control and enhance their everyday lives.

 

"Sports and fitness trackers, gave way to more advanced health-tech monitoring and interpretation tools, and now we have really applicable digital health tools like blood pressure and glucose applications. Combined usage can provide a view of individual their past and current health state, which can be used by you or your doctor to inform what you do next; what you do day to day to improve your general wellbeing or tackle a range of conditions working with a clinician to interpret and use this data to take action to ultimately improve your short, medium and long term health conditions."

The data shows that more than half of all age groups except for the over 65s have used a gadget to monitor their health, with 18 - 24 year olds naturally leading the way, with 91 per cent having done so.

A third of over 65 year olds have monitored their wellbeing using technology - suggesting it is a trend that is here to stay.

Last modified on 13 October 2015
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