Australia’s AIA Health insurance company says that giving away an Apple Watch to folks that hit certain fitness goals resulted in a 35% average increase in activity by those users.
The AIA Health insurance company added the Apple Watch to its “Vitality” program in 2020. Members that chose to sign up for the program would get an Apple Watch that would be free as long as they continued to reach specific health goals that were set for them.
“When comparing physical activity in 2019 and 2020, for those who took up AIA Vitality’s Apple Watch Benefit last year, we have seen activity increase by 35% on average year on year,” says AIA in the new report. “The age group with the most significant improvement in physical activity was those 50 years and older, who saw a 51% increase year on year.”
“The rich health and wellbeing insights Apple Watch users gain,” said the company, “combined with the behavioural principle of ‘loss aversion’ that has been built into this AIA Vitality benefit, led to the significant increases in activity levels.”
AIA looked at results from 1,198 members. The survey included members that had been full AIA members throughout 2019 and that had opted-in to the Apple Watch program. The company also included data from the previous year to eliminate the chances of inaccurate data.
“Physical activity remained consistent at the original increased level seen linked to the Active Benefit construct across 2018-19,” says AIA, “then increased significantly when the Apple Watch Benefit was introduced in 2020.”
“AIA Vitality members physical activity behaviour was reasonably consistent for two years prior to the introduction of the Apple Watch Benefit,” says the report. “[Its] introduction genuinely drove members that opted-in to the benefit to increase their physical activity – rather than 2020 being an anomaly.”
(Via AppleInsider)
