Observational studyJMIR mHealth and uHealth2025
Consumer Wearable Usage to Collect Health Data Among Adults Living in Germany: Nationwide Observational Survey Study.
Observational study in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- The past, present and future use of technology-enabled physical activity interventions in clinical and non-clinical populations: a bibliometric trend analysis across four decades.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: The usage of consumer wearables (CWs; eg, fitness trackers and smartwatches) in the population has increased enormously within the last decade. This has resulted in a large amount of digital person-generated health data that could be used to answer vital research questions. However, little is currently known about the usage of CWs to collect health data from the population living in Germany. Objective: This study aimed to describe the ownership of consumer wearables and their usage for the collection of health data from the adult population living in Germany, as well as the motives for the collection of health data and the average wear times. In addition, this study also aimed to investigate sociodemographic and health- and behavior-related differences between the group of CW users and the group of nonusers. Methods: We used data from the nationally representative survey "German Health Update," which was conducted through telephone interviews in 2021 and 2022. The final sample comprised 4464 adults aged 18 years and older. We derived weighted prevalences for the usage of CWs, as well as adjusted odds ratios for the ownership and the usage of CWs and their association with sociodemographic and health- and behavior-related variables. Results: Of the adult population, 19.3% (843/4459) owned a CW, of whom 77.8% (650/842) used their CW to collect health data (which corresponds to 650/4458, 15.0% of the adult population). Older people, people with a low income, and people with a lower level of physical activity (PA) were less likely to own a CW and were less likely to use it for the collection of health data. Of the CW users who collected health data, 47.2% (321/650) wore their CW during nocturnal sleep. The most frequently named motives for the collection of health data with a CW were "to observe my PA" (544/647, 85.0%), "for fun" (508/644, 79.0%), and "for support during exercising" (423/647, 66.3%). Women chose the motive "to observe my PA" and "to increase my PA" more often than men, whereas men chose the motive "to observe health issues" more often than women. Conclusions: Adults living in Germany owning a CW are younger, have a higher income, and are more physically active than individuals who do not use a CW. This means that the population groups that would be in particular need of health care are not sufficiently represented in these health datasets. Researchers should consider the selectivity of CW users when planning to use CW health data to answer research questions.
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Registered trials
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