Greg Levine: How wearable technology is revolutionising insurance
From Apple Watches to Polar, Fitbit and Garmin, today we live during an age in which wearable technology is everywhere. However, it’s not just your clients that can benefit, writes Greg Levine, Chief Growth and Operations Officer for Vitality.
According to a YouGov poll, 35% of Brits say they currently own and use a wearable device1, whilst the number of people using physical activity trackers globally is expected to reach 524m by 20292.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting even recently announced that smart watches, ring devices and fitness trackers would form a key part of his 10-year plan to revolutionise the NHS.
Elsewhere, wearables are now helping to prevent illnesses through early detection. A study in Australia found that wearable technology could correctly identify the atrial fibrillation, Covid-19 status and whether someone had a fall3. Their potential is awesome.
Forming healthy habits
Even before the onset of disease, around half of the choices we make in our daily lives are controlled by habits4. And bad habits often have a detrimental impact on our overall health and wellbeing.
Many of us are increasingly leading inactive, sedentary lives and not getting enough exercise, adding to other health risks such as poor nutrition and lack of sleep. It’s clear we’re not getting any healthier as a nation, with around nine million in the UK – one in five – predicted to be living with a major illness by 20405.
"The widespread appeal of wellbeing and society's growing interest in wearable technology has allowed us to rethink the role we can play in people's lives"
These habitual, but modifiable, lifestyle choices and behaviours are part of human nature. According to behavioural economics, we’re over-optimistic about our chances of living longer, we under-estimate our risk of serious illness and we’re much more prone to immediate gratification over longer term gain (more on this later). All this can make healthy living a challenge.
However, knowing this is helpful. By understanding cogntive biases and the role incentives can play, it’s perfectly possible to help people form healthy habits than can help reduce mortality risks and prevent illness. And the good news is that it’s never too late to make a positive change, sometimes clients just need a nudge in the right direction. This is where wearable technology can come in.
The power of wearables
Even small changes can significantly improve someone’s health and life expectancy. Physical inactivity, poor diet and excess alcohol consumption combined account for around 70% of deaths worldwide6. This is why the Vitality Programme is built around driving positive behaviour change and helping people to form healthy habits.
Wearable devices allow clients to track their daily activity and provide immediate, real-time performance data, offering a particularly effective way of helping them to maintain and improve their health and wellbeing.
And it’s not just about running marathons or hitting the gym five times a week. Tracking and improving physical activity can be as simple as going for a brisk walk or doing the gardening. For example, if an inactive person started walking 5,000 steps just three times a week it could extend their life by up to three years7.
We also know that when tracking physical activity is incentivised, clients are more likely to engage and therefore form healthy habits. For example, rewarding individuals for doing just 10,000 steps three times a week with a handcrafted coffee from Caffe Nero is proven to be effective at increasing physical activity levels for those who engage with the Vitality Programme8.
Not just for young people
Contrary to what we might think, its no longer just young people that are switched-on to the idea of using wearable tech to manage and improve their health.
We see growing numbers of older people embracing wearables to track daily fitness levels or monitor health conditions. Indeed, the over 55s now represent one of the fastest growing groups adopting wearable tech9.
And when used to help drive healthier lifestyle choices, the impact can be especially pronounced in older age groups.
Looking at Vitality’s own findings, we see an 11% increase in active days amongst members over the age of 50 compared to those under 50 through the Vitality Programme. We also see a 15% improvement in physical activity levels of Apple Watch users over 60, compared to under 30s10.
Good for them, good for you
The widespread appeal of wellbeing and society’s growing interest in wearable technology has allowed our industry to rethink the role health and protection can play in people’s lives. Gone are the days when an insurance plan was purchased and left in a drawer and forgotten about.
As human beings, our propensity for instant gratification – what behavioural economists call ‘present bias’ - means that the opportunity is twofold. We can deliver immediate value to not just appeal to clients by giving them something they want from their plan from day one; we can use this engagement to enhance their lives and help them get healthier and live longer as a result.
The results speak for themselves. By engaging in the Vitality Programme, members increase their physical activity by 13% and their diet by 20%. In 2023 alone, members recorded 992bn steps, did over 600,000 health reviews and enjoyed 1.4m healthy food baskets from Waitrose & Partners11.
And this shared-value approach is proven to be effective. Highly active members on average incur 28% lower healthcare costs and live up to five years longer12, which means Vitality can return more value through rewards and partners (a total of £82m during 2023).
For advisers, this brings an array of benefits. From more client loyalty and better customer satisfaction to higher retention rates among the more engaged13, as well as a whole host of family and friends referrals. It really is good for everyone.
Where to next?
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When Gemma wanted to et active after having her first child, her Vitality plan provided her with the boost and incentives, and see discovered being active didn't have to be as strenuous as running or regularly hitting the gym.
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Overcoming 'present bias': The key to closing the protection gap?
Getting clients to see the value in protection cover isn't always easy. However, rethinking the way protection works is giving advisers an opportunity to overcome this barrier, writes Greg Levine, in the first of our Sales as a Force for Good article series.
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2 Global: fitness/activity tracking wristwear number of users 2020-2029 | Statista
3 Can wearable activity trackers detect disease? - News and events - University of South Australia
4 Habit Index, Vitality and LSE, 2024
5 'Health in 2040: projected patterns of illness in England', The Health Foundation, July 2023
6 Habit Index, Vitality and LSE, 2024
7 Habit Index, Vitality and LSE, 2024
8 Vitality member data analysis, 2023
9 Increasing Adoption and Utility of Smartwatches in Older Adults | Innovation in Aging | Oxford Academic
10 Vitality Analysis, 2023
11 VitalityLife Claims and Benefits Report, 2024
12 VitalityHealth Claims Insights Report, 2024
13 VitalityLife Claims and Benefits Report, 2024