ArticleDigital health
Digital health and the biopolitics of the Quantified Self.
Article in Digital health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Identification of Patient Perceptions That Can Affect the Uptake of Interventions Using Biometric Monitoring Devices: Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Pooled it
- Negotiating privacy and responsibility in digital public health: a qualitative study of the social and ethical implications of peer-to-peer health data sharing.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Article
- The AI-aging-enterprise: a political economy of aging and artificial intelligence.The Gerontologist · 2025Article
- A System Model and Requirements for Transformation to Human-Centric Digital Health.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Review
- The impact of digital health technologies on moral responsibility: a scoping review.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2025Article
- Participant Contributions to Person-Generated Health Data Research Using Mobile Devices: Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Economic Perspective of the Use of Wearables in Health Care: A Systematic Review.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Digital health · 2024Review
- Twenty Years of Get With The Guidelines-Stroke: Celebrating Past Successes, Lessons Learned, and Future Challenges.Stroke · 2024Review
- Learning healthcare systems in cardiology: A qualitative interview study on ethical dilemmas of a learning healthcare system.Learning health systems · 2024Article
- Behind the good of digital tools for occupational safety and health: a scoping review of ethical issues surrounding the use of the internet of things.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Article
- The internet of things deployed for occupational health and safety purposes: A qualitative study of opportunities and ethical issues.PloS one · 2024Article
- Unlock digital health promotion in LMICs to benefit the youth.PLOS digital health · 2023Review
- 'Friendly' and 'noisy surveillance' through MapMyRun during the COVID-19 pandemic.Geoforum; journal of physical, human, and regional geosciences · 2022Article
- Ethical Issues in Social Science Research Employing Big Data.Science and engineering ethics · 2022Article
- "Where There Is Light, There Is Also Darkness": Discussing Young Adults' Willingness to Disclose Data to Use Wearables and Health Applications-Results from a Focus Group Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Assessing Pain Research: A Narrative Review of Emerging Pain Methods, Their Technosocial Implications, and Opportunities for Multidisciplinary Approaches.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- From SARS to COVID-19: Digital infrastructures of surveillance and segregation in exceptional times.Cities (London, England) · 2022Article
- Attitudes and Expectations of Clinical Research Participants Toward Digital Health and Mobile Dietary Assessment Tools: Cross-Sectional Survey Study.Frontiers in digital health · 2022Article
- Interpreting fitness: self-tracking with fitness apps through a postphenomenology lens.AI & society · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Recent years have witnessed an intensive growth of systems of measurement and an increasing integration of data processes into various spheres of everyday life. From smartphone apps that measure our activity and sleep, to digital devices that monitor our health and performance at the workplace, the culture of measurement is currently on the rise. Encouraged by movements such as the Quantified Self, whose motto is 'self knowledge through numbers', a growing number of people across the globe are embracing practices of self-quantification and tracking in the spirit of improving their wellbeing and productivity or charting their fitness progress. In this article, I examine the biopolitical aspects of the Quantified Self practices, exploring some of the ideologies and rationalities underlying self-tracking culture. I argue that such practices represent an instantiation of a 'biopolitics of the self' whereby the body is made amenable to management and monitoring techniques that often echo the ethos of neoliberalism. Rather than being restricted to an individualized form, self-tracking practices are also becoming part of a biosocial and communal phenomenon in which individuals are incited to share with others information about their physical activities and biodata. In exploring some examples of this data sharing culture, I critically address the extent to which the sharing of personal physical data can be seen as a 'solidaristic' act that can contribute to a larger Big Data ecosystem and inform the wider medical community and healthcare research and policy. I link this discussion to debates on 'data philanthropy', highlighting the emerging tension between philanthropic discourses of data sharing and issues of privacy. From here, I go on to discuss further ethical and political concerns, particularly in relation to data security and the marked shifts in healthcare responsibilities.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.