An Apple Watch, the Fitbit Charge 5 or a Garmin Forerunner 7. These are some examples of wearables you see coming by more and more often. Everyone has a friend, acquaintance or family member with such a wearable. But are these wearables really that effective and what exactly can they be used to ‘track’?
What are wearables?
Wearables are smart and compact electronic devices that are usually worn on the arm, wrist or close to the skin, and can, for example, collect and process information about the human body, such as temperature, heart rate and other performance. Nowadays, wearables are not just in the form of a watch. Even a ring can nowadays tell one how he/she slept that night every morning.
What can wearables do?
With wearables, you can measure almost anything. The advantage of this is that you have insight into all the data. Wearables have different functionalities. We focus on the ‘health functionalities’. For example, a wearable can measure stress, the quality of sleep, the amount of exercise in a day and also your heart rate. Research shows that people start moving more and thus live healthier lives with the use of a smartwatch, for example. Because people are confronted with data about their own bodies on a daily basis, the motivation to improve that data is higher. This is promoted when an app is linked to the wearables. This makes the wearable more like a personal coach. In the Fitward app, data from your wearables is conveniently displayed. Next, gamification elements are applied in the app. By using the game element through challenges and leaderboards, users of the Fitward app are motivated to go the extra mile.
Curious about what Fitward can do for vitality in your organisation? Please contact us.
