Most Patients Support Incorporating Wearable Device Data in Healthcare

October 30, 2023 - More than half of healthcare consumers (59 percent) said that if their physician incorporated health data from their personal wearable devices into their treatment plans, they would be encouraged to make healthier choices, according to a new survey.

The survey, conducted by software research firm Software Advice in September 2023, polled 876 healthcare consumers in the United States. The survey respondents had seen a healthcare provider in the past two years and own and use personal healthcare wearable devices like Apple Watches or Fitbits.

An overwhelming majority of healthcare consumers (91 percent) want to share data from their personal wearable devices with physicians. Among these consumers, 82 percent said they want to share wearable device data with their physician to take a more active role in their health, 77 percent said to improve their health outcomes, and 58 percent said to get a more holistic view of their health. Additionally, 48 percent want to share wearables data to improve their fitness goals, and 42 percent to better manage their chronic condition.  

Most healthcare consumers (76 percent) want to be able to open the health application connected to their wearable device with their physician and review the data in person, while 73 percent want to provide wearable device data on the intake forms prior to an appointment. Other preferred methods for sharing wearables data include automatically uploading data to their EMR (51 percent) and sending physicians screenshots of their health data between clinic visits (49 percent).

Additionally, healthcare consumers appear to be interested in “prescribed” activities tracked through their wearable devices, the survey shows. About 21 percent of survey respondents said they were extremely interested in these prescribed activities, and 57 percent said they were somewhat interested. Only 6 percent said they were extremely disinterested.

Over half (59 percent) of survey respondents said that physicians including wearable device data into treatment plans would encourage them to make healthier choices, like exercising more often.

A small proportion of patients do not want to share wearables data with their physicians primarily due to data privacy and security concerns.

Of the 82 respondents who said they did not want to share wearables data, 63 percent said they wanted to keep the data to themselves for the sake of privacy, 41 percent said they were worried about potential data breaches, and 37 percent believed that the data is not accurate or reliable.

Still, healthcare consumers appear enthusiastic about the use of healthcare wearables. Twenty percent of the respondents said they were extremely interested, and 45 percent said they were somewhat interested in emerging and future wearable technology.

These survey results largely align with prior research into wearable device adoption and use.

According to survey results released in February, wearables use increased by 8 percentage points from 27 percent in 2018 to 35 percent in 2023. The survey was conducted by Morning Consult and polled 2,201 adults between Jan. 23 and Jan. 25. The results were compared to a previous Morning Consult poll conducted in December 2018 among 2,201 adults.

About 61 percent of wearables users said they used the devices at least once a day, and 15 percent said they used them a few times a week. Most wearables users’ top reasons for owning and using wearables were achieving fitness goals (31 percent), tracking health data (24 percent), and losing/controlling weight (13 percent).

This survey also noted healthcare consumers' concerns surrounding wearable devices and data privacy, with 30 percent of wearables users saying data privacy worries them.

Not only that, but 39 percent of healthcare consumers cited security vulnerabilities as a significant drawback to wearable technology use, a 2022 survey revealed. Conducted by Software Advice in January 2022, the survey polled 450 patients who use medically prescribed wearable devices.

Further, 87 percent of respondents who used wearable devices that require manual data entry said they had recorded inaccurate data at some point. As a result, 65 percent of patients said they have had to contact their doctor's office to correct the issue.