23-07-2025
Are health apps making us healthier or more anxious?
Dr Jay Matthew is medical doctor, lecturer, author and runs a consulting firm focused on healthcare management consulting
Image: Supplied
Your smartphone buzzes.
"Stand up! You've been sitting for an hour."
Your fitness tracker flashes red because your heart rate spiked during that stressful work meeting.
An app reminds you to log your water intake, check your blood pressure, and rate your mood on a scale of one to ten.
We are now living in the age of digital health monitoring, where technology promises to change us all into perfectly optimized human beings. But are we actually getting healthier, or just more anxious about every bodily function?
What I see in daily clinical practice tells a slightly different, more nuanced story.
With dozens of health metrics at our fingertips, it's easy to get overwhelmed. Your wearable device might track everything from steps and sleep stages to heart rate variability and stress levels. But which numbers should you actually pay attention to?
Video Player is loading.
Play Video
Play
Unmute
Current Time
0:00
/
Duration
-:-
Loaded :
0%
Stream Type LIVE
Seek to live, currently behind live
LIVE
Remaining Time
-
0:00
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque
Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps
Reset
restore all settings to the default values Done
Close Modal Dialog
End of dialog window.
Advertisement
Video Player is loading.
Play Video
Play
Unmute
Current Time
0:00
/
Duration
-:-
Loaded :
0%
Stream Type LIVE
Seek to live, currently behind live
LIVE
Remaining Time
-
0:00
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque
Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps
Reset
restore all settings to the default values Done
Close Modal Dialog
End of dialog window.
Next
Stay
Close ✕
I would suggest that you start with the basics. Steps, sleep duration, and resting heart rate provide valuable baseline information about your overall fitness and recovery.
Most adults benefit from 7,000 to 10,000 steps daily, not necessarily the often-cited 10,000, which was originally a marketing slogan for a Japanese pedometer company in the 1960s.
Sleep quality also matters more than quantity, for the most part. While sleep tracking can help identify patterns, don't obsess over achieving the "perfect" sleep score every night.
Natural variation is normal. Focus on consistent bedtimes and wake times rather than micromanaging every sleep stage.
Heart rate trends trump single readings. A gradually decreasing resting heart rate over weeks or months often indicates improving fitness. However, daily fluctuations due to stress, caffeine, or illness are completely normal and rarely cause for concern.
I would also advise against the more exotic metrics, for now. Heart rate variability, blood oxygen levels, and stress scores can provide insights, but they're less reliable and harder to interpret than basic measurements.
Unless you have a specific health condition requiring monitoring, these advanced metrics often create more confusion than clarity.
I have noticed a troubling trend in my practice; that patients arriving with excerpts of data from health apps and other monitors, convinced they're seriously ill because of minor variations in their metrics.
I've had patients lose sleep, literally, worrying about their sleep scores, for example. The irony is that the anxiety about their health data was actually harming their health.
This phenomenon, sometimes called health anxiety amplification, occurs when constant monitoring makes us hyperaware of normal bodily variations. Your heart rate naturally fluctuates throughout the day. Your sleep patterns change with stress, weather, and life events.
These variations aren't problems to solve but signs that your body is responding appropriately to your environment. So my advice is to set boundaries with your devices. Consider turning off non-essential health notifications and checking your metrics weekly rather than hourly.
Remember that trends over time matter more than daily fluctuations.
The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of telemedicine, and for many routine health needs, virtual visits offer genuine benefits for regular and known patients. You can consult with your doctor about prescription refills, discuss test results, or address minor symptoms without taking time off work or sitting in a crowded waiting room.
Telemedicine works particularly well for follow-up appointments for chronic conditions like diabetes or hypertension after the initial appointment, where results need to be discussed from various blood tests, mental health counselling and therapy sessions, routine medication questions, and minor acute issues like cold symptoms or skin rashes.
However, virtual care has limitations. Physical examinations remain irreplaceable for many conditions. Your doctor can't feel a lump, listen to heart murmurs, or assess joint mobility through a screen.
Building trust and rapport, which are crucial elements of effective healthcare, can also be more challenging in virtual settings. The hybrid approach often works best. Many patients benefit from combining virtual and in-person care, using telemedicine for routine check-ins while maintaining regular physical visits for comprehensive care.
Technology can be a powerful ally in maintaining and improving health, but it works best when used thoughtfully rather than compulsively.
So my suggestion in this regard is to choose one or two metrics to focus on rather than trying to optimise everything simultaneously. If you're working on fitness, prioritise steps and exercise frequency. If sleep is your concern, track bedtime consistency and duration.
Set realistic goals based on your current baseline rather than idealised targets. Gradually increasing your daily steps by 500-1,000 is more sustainable than jumping from 3,000 to 10,000 overnight.
Use technology to identify patterns, not to achieve perfection. Notice that you sleep better on days when you exercise?
That your energy dips when you skip breakfast?
These insights are valuable; perfect scores are not.
Remember that health is more than data points. How you feel, your energy levels, your ability to do activities you enjoy, and your sense of well-being matter more than hitting arbitrary numerical targets every day.
The goal of health technology should be empowerment, not enslavement.
When your devices help you make positive changes and feel more in control of your health, they're serving their purpose. When they create stress, anxiety, or obsessive behaviors, it might be time to step back and reassess.
DAILY NEWS
