Our analysis of research published over the past 25 years suggests otherwise.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
The studies were conducted between 1995 and 2017.
It is important to note that these snapshots did not track specific individuals.
Rather, they tracked samples of people from the same age group.
After identifying the research studies, we calculated an effect size for each study.
Lisa Cadmus-Bertram, an assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, explains which fitness trackers are best at tracking.
The effect size is a method of adjusting the data to allow for an apples-to-apples comparison.
To calculate the effect size, we used the data reported in the studies.
Overall the decrease in physical activity per person was over 1,100 steps per day between 1995 and 2017.
Our study doesnt address why physical activity has declined over the past 25 years.
However, the studies we reviewed mentioned some contributing factors.
At school, most of the physical activity that adolescents perform has traditionally come from physical education classes.
All of these factors may help to explain the decline in physical activity that we observed in our study.
In addition, fewer adults and children are walking or bicycling to school or work than 25 years ago.
Since then, this active transportation has largelybeen replaced by automobile trips.
Rates of travel by school bus or public transportation have seen little change.
So why use a fitness tracker?
Fitness trackers can help to increase peoples awareness of their daily physical activity.
However, these devices are only part of the solution to addressing the problem of sedentary lifestyles.
They arefacilitators, rather than drivers, of behavior change.
On the other hand, physical activity has a dramatic positive impacton healthandwell-being.
The first step to increasing active movement is to measure it, which these devices can do.
