A group of 172 Tasmanians have been handed free Garmin smartwatches as part of a study into whether wearable tech actually gets people walking more.
The devices track daily movement over 12 weeks, with walking the main focus.
More than 300 people put their hand up in the first 48 hours.
The Walking and Thriving for Community Health (WATCH) study is looking at the gap between knowing you should move more and actually doing it.
University of Tasmania researcher Bikram Ghosh said the project was driven by local concerns, not an agenda imported from elsewhere.
“This study grew from a Tasmanian conversation about a Tasmanian problem,” Ghosh said.
“All three partners are locally based and the collaboration emerged from shared concern about community health outcomes here, rather than being a research agenda designed elsewhere and applied to Tasmania as a convenient test population.”
Tasmania consistently records worse health outcomes than the national average, including higher rates of heart disease and obesity.
The study is run by the University of Tasmania with health insurer St Lukes and Hobart software firm HealthCare Software. Participants must be St Lukes members.
Movement data is collected through Snug, a free app built by HealthCare that stores medical history and connects fitness data.
St Lukes chief operations officer Darren Harris said they wanted to focus on prevention rather than treatment.
“This study is all about understanding what motivates Tasmanians to get moving and what support sustains our long-term wellbeing,” he said.
“What we learn will help shape future digital health initiatives that support healthier lifestyles across our membership and the broader community, as we continue our work to make Tasmania the healthiest island on the planet.”
St Lukes said all participant data is anonymised.
