Step counters could be doing 'more harm than good', scientist claims

A leading computer scientist expert has claimed step counters could be doing 'more harm than good'
Shutterstock
Hatty Collier21 February 2017

Step counters could be doing more harm than good by driving people to chase over-ambitious goals, a leading computer scientist has said.

Dr Greg Hager, from Johns Hopkins University in the US, criticised apps and devices that set the user the target of 10,000 steps.

He also claimed that “very few” of the estimated 165,000 available healthcare apps were based on scientific evidence but were likely to have an enormous impact on public health after being downloaded more than a billion times.

Speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Boston, he said: "Some of you might wear Fitbits or something equivalent, and I bet every now and then it gives you that cool little message 'you did 10,000 steps today'.

"But why is 10,000 steps important? What's big about 10,000?

"Turns out in 1960 in Japan they figured out that the average Japanese man, when he walked 10,000 steps a day burned something like 3,000 calories and that is what they thought the average person should consume so they picked 10,000 steps as a number.

"But is that the right number for any of you in this room? Who knows? It's just a number that's now built into the apps."

A survey of several hundred mental health apps used for coaching and diagnosis found only five that could be linked to an evidence base, he said.

None of those were available to the public, they were all research tools.

Dr Hager added: "I think apps could definitely be doing more harm than good. I am sure that these apps are causing problems.

"Without any scientific evidence base, how do you know that any of these apps are good for you? They may even be harmful."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT