Two in five U.S. adults with or at risk for heart disease use a smartphone or tablet to monitor their health, finds a new Yale University study. But those at highest risk for heart disease are least likely to use technology to track their health goals. The study aimed to identify gaps in the adoption of mobile health technology and potential ways to reduce cardiovascular risk factors.
The results were published in the Advances journal of the American College of Cardiology on August 10..
A study published by the authors earlier this year in JAMA Network Open found that fewer than a quarter of U.S. adults with or at risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) use wearable devices, but little is known about whether smartphones or tablets are being used to monitor health in the U.S.
To better understand how people with CVD use technology to track their health, the research team collected nationally representative data from the National Cancer Institute’s Health Information National Trends Survey. They examined the demographics and smart device usage patterns of 16,092 study participants from 2017 to 2020. A total of 10,660 participants had CVD or cardiovascular risk factors, representing more than 154 million U.S. adults.
“We found that younger people, women, and people of color with higher education or higher household income were more likely to use smart devices to track their health goals,” said Alia Aminoroaya, a postdoctoral researcher in the Cardiovascular Data Science (CarDS) Lab at the Yale School of Medicine and co-first author of the study.
The research team assessed whether study participants had ever used a smart device to track health goals, such as losing weight or increasing the number of steps they took each day.
“Older adults and men were more likely to develop CVD, yet were less likely to own or use smart devices to monitor their health. Similarly, smart device use was significantly reduced among those with less education and lower household incomes; this technology gap may exacerbate existing health disparities and lead to worsening cardiovascular disease.”
“People can effectively use smart devices to track their health,” says Labdeep Dhingra, MBBS, a postdoctoral researcher in the CarDS lab and co-first author of the study, “but this is not happening, especially among those most at risk.”
The researchers said health care providers can be part of the solution for people with CVD by using technology to encourage healthy behaviors.
Rohan Khera, MD, MSc, assistant professor of medicine, director of the CarDS Lab and senior author of the study, highlighted the challenges ahead.
“Across these paired studies, we found that people at highest cardiovascular risk were the least likely to use wearable devices such as smartwatches or use technology on their mobile phones to track and improve their health,” Khera said. “We need to understand what it takes for older people and those with lower incomes to adopt healthier lifestyles and achieve better cardiovascular outcomes. We speculate that technology updates could help, but we need to generate evidence on whether widespread adoption of technology is the answer.”
This research was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (grant K23HL153775) and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
