Study finds nobody actually shares their wearable data with doctors

There are many reasons to own a wearable, but one of the main reasons is to help you keep track of your health stats. The companies that make the wearables you use, like Samsung and Oura, even often advertise how you can share this data with your healthcare providers. Although such information could be helpful for clinicians to gain a better understanding of your health, hardly anyone appears to be taking advantage of this benefit.

In a recently published study by Yale School of Medicine doctors, a survey was conducted over three periods (2020, 2022, and 2024). The survey in question focused on wearable use, willingness to share data, and actual sharing of health information.

Of the 17,395 people who participated in the survey, it was found that wearable use increased from 30.2% in 2020 to 41.1% in 2024. It also found that about half of the participants reported daily use of their wearable. The authors of the study add, “there are opposing trends in device adoption and the level of engagement required for wearable data to meaningfully inform health care.”

What’s more interesting is the discrepancy between what these participants are saying and what they are actually doing. According to the study, the willingness to share tracked health data with clinicians was consistently high over all three periods, with a modest decline over time. In 2020, 81.3% of adults claimed they were willing to share their tracked data. That number dipped to 78.7% in 2022 and 73.4% in 2024.

Despite those high percentages, those who actually shared their device-generated data with doctors were below 20%. In 2020, only 14.2% of participants reported actually sharing this information in the past 12 months. However, this number increased to 19% in 2022 and 19.2% in 2024.

It appears that digital literacy played a role in how many people said they were willing to share their data. The report states that “higher digital literacy was associated with increased odds of willingness to share.” However, digital literacy did not translate over to actual sharing of wearable data.