Tracking for Health

The question that has remained unanswered up until now is: How many people are tracking their health on a regular basis?

In 2010, Pew Internet began to explore the phenomenon of tracking for health, limiting our questions to those who use online tools. We found that 15% of internet users tracked their weight, diet, or exercise routine online and 17% of internet users tracked any other health indicators or symptoms online. Fully 27% of adult internet users said yes to either question, which translates to about one in five U.S. adults who use some form of technology to track a health indicator. In this study, based on a national telephone survey fielded in August-September 2012, Pew Internet widened the scope of the questions to include all adults and all forms of tracking, not just online. Fully 60% of U.S. adults say they track their weight, diet, or exercise routine. One-third of U.S. adults track health indicators or symptoms, like blood pressure, blood sugar, headaches, or sleep patterns. One-third of caregivers — people caring for a loved one, usually an adult family member – say they track a health indicator for their loved one. When looking at this last group as a segment of the total population, 12% of U.S. adults track a health indicator on behalf of someone they care for. Added together, seven in ten U.S. adults say they track at least one health indicator.