We don’t generally give a lot of weight to vendor-sponsored studies, but a report issued by Fitbit this week caught our attention. That’s probably because Amy McDonough, general manager of Fitbit Group Health, the company’s employee wellness division, took the time to meet in person during a swing though Chicago.
Let’s quickly review the results of the research, which was conducted by human resources software, analytics and consulting firm Springbuk.
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Springbuk analyzed three years of medical and pharmacy claims plus biometric and activity data collected at two, unspecified companies involved in Fitbit corporate wellness programs; the first year was to set a baseline. For the 866 individuals who opted into their employers’ programs, healthcare costs were nearly 25 percent less in the second year of participation than those of a control group. That’s a savings of about $1,300 per person.
Those who kept using Fitbit devices for at least half of the two-year program length saw their own healthcare costs fall by nearly 47 percent, the study said.
The wearables company also supported research at the Dayton (Ohio) Regional Transport Authority, which became self-insured in 2014. During the transition, the RTA partially subsidized the cost of Fitbit trackers for employees in a pilot program that also included health coaching and incentives for participation.
According to Fitbit, the RTA saved $2.3 million on projected employee healthcare costs of $15.5 million over two years — nearly 15 percent. Plus, participants saw LDL cholesterol decrease by 12 points and blood glucose by 17 points in the first year.
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What’s important here is that most of the RTA employees who participated were bus drivers. “They sit for a living,” McDonough said. McDonough said the average Dayton bus driver gains 50 pounds after taking the job, due to the sedentary nature of the work.
These findings aren’t too far out of line with what Indiana University Health reported during a Fitbit event in Chicago a year ago.
In each case, the social aspect seems to help. According to McDonough, Fitbit users who connect with and challenge friends walk, on average, 11 percent more than the general Fitbit customer base.
These studies are fine, but what seems to be missing is a lot of peer-reviewed data on wearables. Yes, there have been studies like one the University of California, San Diego, conducted among overweight, postmenopausal women and published by the Journal of Medical Internet Research last year. But McDonough acknowledged that payers want to see more scientifically rigorous evidence.
Much of that research is in progress. Startup telehealth vendor Fruit Street Health integrated Fitbit data into its platform, McDonough noted. That New York-based company is teaming with Fitbit to run a clinical trial on diabetes prevention right now.
Photo: Fitbit