Real-world impact of physical activity reward-driven digital App use on cardiometabolic and cardiovascular disease incidence

Abstract The lack of effective tools available to health providers for enhancing patient physical activity prompts this study to examine the real-world impact of a physical activity reward-driven app on health outcomes, utilizing Electronic Health Records (EHR) data from Israel’s largest healthcare organization. Conducting a retrospective cohort study, we matched app-users to non-users based on demographic and clinical characteristics. App-users showed significant reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (HR 0.95), stroke (HR 0.91), and type 2 diabetes (HR 0.82) compared to non-app users. Moreover, vigorous physical activity among app-users significantly lowered incidence rates of cardiovascular disease (HR 0.88), stroke (HR 0.84), and type 2 diabetes (HR 0.75) compared with non-app user. However, engagement in mild physical activity did not differ from controls in incidence of either outcome. These findings highlight the potential of app-based interventions, particularly in promoting higher levels of physical activity, to mitigate major vascular and metabolic illnesses.