How so-called health apps could actually be causing us stress

THEY’rE designed to make it easier for you to get healthy. But in fact mobile health apps are ‘fuelling anxiety’ and ‘eroding people’s sense of wellbeing’, warns a senior GP.

The ‘ untested and unscientific’ apps cause stress by making us worry that we are abnormal or unhealthy, says Dr Des Spence.

Popular apps include MyFitnessPal and Apple’s health app, which is automatically installed on the latest Apple smartphones.

But Dr Spence warned that newer apps that monitor your heart rate, blood pressure and blood oxygen levels could be causing unnecessary worry without providing any benefit.

‘The truth is that these apps and devices are untested and unscientific, and they will open the door of uncertainty’, the Glasgow GP wrote in the British Medical Journal.

He added: ‘We should be sceptical of embracing more medical technology. One of the problems we face as doctors is that although people are much healthier, there is a lot more anxiety.

‘People’s sense of wellbeing has been eroded and a lot of that is by technology, use of the internet, that type of stuff.

‘My concern with the health apps is they have the potential to fuel anxiety without any benefit.’

Dr Spence said that manufacturers were more concerned about making a profit than their customers’ wellbeing, with apps purposely designed to make people worry about their health so they would spend more money on health technology, diet pills and slimming firms.

‘The people who write these apps will clearly have a commercial agenda. The underlying ethos of the app will be about profit and not about health,’ he said.

Apple’s health app comes pre-downloaded on its new phones and automatically tells you how many steps you have walked each day.

It can also work out the number of calories you have eaten and burned off, as well as your blood pressure, blood sugar levels and heart rate.

And last month the computer giant launched the Apple Watch, with prices starting from £300, which can also monitor users’ health and fitness.

Dr Spence said the majority of apps which just monitor your calorie intake or step count were ‘harmless’, but are unlikely to offer many health benefits.

And he warned there was a risk that patients relying on them would feel ‘cheated’ if they developed cancer or heart disease despite trying to follow a healthy lifestyle.

However, Dr Iltifat Husain, editor of the iMedicalApps.com website, said there was no evidence health apps caused harm.

Also writing in the BMJ, he said they had ‘great potential’ to reduce death risk by ‘encouraging healthy behaviour’.