Providing an Apple Watch to those who achieve particular fitness targets has resulted in a 35% increase in activity, according to AIA Health in Australia.
An Apple Watch will be part of the AIA Health insurance company’s Vitality programme in 2020. Those who signed up for the programme would get a free Apple Watch as long as they met certain health objectives.
According to AIA, “when comparing physical activity in 2019 and 2020, we have observed activity rise by 35 percent on average for individuals who took up AIA Vitality’s Apple Watch Benefit last year.” A 51% increase in physical activity among individuals 50 and older is the most notable change in the whole population.
Because of “the rich health and wellness information Apple Watch customers acquire” and “the behavioural concept of ‘loss aversion’ that has been integrated into this AIA Vitality benefit, the considerable improvements in activity levels were caused,” according to the business.
The findings of 1,198 AIA members were analysed. Those who took part in the poll had to have chosen the Apple Watch programme and been full members of AIA throughout the year in order to ensure that the findings were comparable.
Data from the prior year was also utilised to rule out the possibility of a fluke.
When Apple Watch Benefit was released in 2020, “physical activity stayed stable,” claims the company, “then grew considerably.”
After two years of “reasonable consistency” in AIA Vitality members’ physical activity behaviour, “[the benefit] truly led members who opted-in to the benefit to enhance their physical activity—rather than 2020 being an outlier,” it concludes.