The Value of Wearables: How Smart Devices Can Create Long-Term Savings
Health can come with great personal and global benefits or costs. Wearables are often marketed as fitness tools, but their potential economic value depends on whether they support sustained health behaviours, particularly physical activity.
When it comes to personal costs, the World Health Organization (WHO) agrees that physical activity reduces symptoms of depression, anxiety, enhances brain health and positively impacts overall well-being.[1] The WHO also estimates around 31% of adults and 80% of adolescents don’t meet recommended levels of physical activity.[1] If we consider the bigger picture, this estimates the global cost of physical inactivity to public healthcare systems is around US$ 300 billion (~ 27 billion per year) between 2020 to 2030.[1]
Physical inactivity is a recognised risk factor for major preventable conditions, which makes activity-supporting technologies relevant for individuals, employers, and healthcare systems.[1] The key point is not that a wearable guarantees savings, but that it can increase the likelihood of consistent behaviour, and consistency is where long-term value starts to compound.
Activity Levels & Personal Healthcare Costs
Evidence links higher activity levels with lower healthcare costs. A systematic review found that physically active individuals had approximately 9 percent to 26.6 % lower healthcare costs than inactive groups.[2] In that context, the economic case for wearables is strongest when devices support consistent increases in physical activity over time. The scale of any cost reduction will vary by baseline health status, the magnitude of behaviour change, and how long it is maintained.
Those outcomes matter at the individual level, but they also matter in settings where health behaviours directly affect operational costs. This is where employer economics becomes an important lens.
Employees, Employers & Productivity
Workplace costs are often discussed through absenteeism because it’s a simple measurable connected to staffing and productivity. A Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health workplace health report linked physical activity to fewer sick days; employees who get at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week miss an average of 4.1 fewer days of work per year.[3] Rather than assuming a guaranteed chain of effects, a practical pathway is that wearables which encourage regular activity may contribute to fewer missed work days over time.
The longer-term financial argument, however, goes beyond reduced sick days. The strongest case for sustained savings is tied to prevention, especially when healthier routines are established early and maintained.
Wearable Investments
Preventive approaches are commonly positioned as more cost-effective than treating established chronic disease, particularly when changes occur early and are sustained. This is why behaviour support is so important. When a product encourages consistent action, it becomes more than a device. It becomes a tool for reducing long-term risk.
For investors, the core question is whether a product can support adherence over time. That is what supports a clearer long-term value narrative in health and wellness markets. Products that earn long-term engagement can also unlock stronger retention, more defensible differentiation, and a clearer pathway to measurable outcomes.
World Health Organization (2024) Physical activity: Fact sheet. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity. Accessed December 2025.
Duijvestijn, M. et al. (2023) ‘Impact of physical activity on healthcare costs: a systematic review’, BMC Health Services Research. Available at: https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-023-09556-8. Accessed December 2025.
Johns Hopkins Public Health (2023) Physical Activity in the Workplace: Impacts on Productivity and Health Costs. Available at: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/sites/default/files/2023-06/whrn-pa.pdf. Accessed December 2025.