KINE 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 22: Sildenafil, Pew Research Center, Plastic Surgery
4 Jul 2018
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Quantifying the body: monitoring and measuring health in the age of mHealth technologies
(Plugged In and Reaching Out) by Deborah Lupton
Mobile and wearable digital devices and related Web 2.0 apps and social media tools
offer new ways of monitoring, measuring and representing the human body. They are
capable of collecting data than can be collected and shared with other people
Medical and public health professionals, have been eager to use what they call mHealth
(mobile health) technologies to promote the public’s health
oThe mHealth are also used by used by the normal population, who are outside of
the professional health field, to voluntarily self-track (aka ‘quantified self’)
In response to the positive approach present in the health promotion and self-tracking
sources, this article adopts a critical sociological perspective to identify some of the
social and cultural meanings of self-tracking practices via digital devices
Following an overview of the mHealth technologies, the author discusses how these
technologies may contribute to concepts of health, embodiment and identity
oThe discussion focuses on how these technologies promote techno-utopian,
enhancement and healthist discourses (way of thinking), and the promote the
visual and metric in representations of the body
Introduction
Frequent statements are made in the popular media and in the medical and public
health text about an upcoming revolution in health are, preventive medicine and public
health, driven by the use mHealth technologies (devices and apps)
Many articles have been recently appeared in health and medical texts in the
possibilities of being able to communicate with the public, monitor their behaviors and
conduct health promotion via mobiles devices that carry the mHealth apps
One specific aspect of mHealth that has received attention of late is that of using mobile
and wearable digital devices to collect data on one’s bodily functions and movements
oSome of the bodily functions that these devices can monitor include: blood
glucose, body temperature, breathing rate, body weight …
oSeveral wearable devices can be worm on the body throughout the day and
night to provide continual monitoring
Many thousands of health-related apps for mobile devices have been developed for the
commercial use
oThese apps provide a range of medical and health information
oTo motivate users, some apps include built-in reward or punishment systems
where points/money can be awarded or taken away if certain goals are met or
not respectively
oData collected from any of these apps can be uploaded websites and social
media and so, can be easily shared
Wearable or mobile devices designed for such monitoring activities include those
developed by the iHealth company, which offers technologies that allow for the
measurement and monitoring of bodily functions
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oThe software within these mHealth devices provides a way for the user to keep a
record of their bodily measurements and to easily observe any variations over
time
oEx: Nike+Fuelband, Fitbit One, Zeo Personal Sleep Coach …
There is a growing movement in self-tracking as part of managing and improving one’s
life
oThe terms ‘self-tracking’ and ‘the quantified self’ are now often employed to
describe the use of these technologies
The activities of voluntary self-trackers in many ways are similar to the objectives of
health promotion
oSubsequently, medical and health professionals have begun to show awareness
to the self-tracking movement and advocate for its increase
Although thus far there are little published data in academic text, research conducted
by the US-based Pew Research Center found that 21% of the USA adults surveyed
reported monitoring a health indicator such as body weight, diet, exercise patterns, and
bodily functions (blood glucose, blood pressure …)
o8% use a medical devices
o7% use medical/health apps on their phones
o5% computerized spreadsheet
o1% website or online tools
The above survey further found that 1 in 5 people (20%) had downloaded a health app
on their phones to track or manage their health
oExercise, body eight, and diet apps were the most common downloaded apps
A Critical Perspective on mHealth Technologies
The use of mobile and wearable mHealth technologies affords the temporal (time),
spatial (space), and interpersonal (sharing) nature of health surveillance
Health data may easily and frequently be collected rom users’ mobile devices; such
devices offer the opportunity to monitor and measure individual’s health habits to not
only the user but also to medical/health professionals
What are the social and cultural implications for how we might think about health
promotion and those individuals who are the target of mHealth campaigns on who
are voluntarily self-tracking their data?
oIn a previous article, the author talks about how these mHealth technologies can
be used as the “interpreters of the body”
In this article the author focuses more specifically on the practice of monitoring
biometric (bodily) data using mobile devices
The author’s theoretical perspective views the mHealth technologies as actors in a
network of heterogeneous (various different) discourses, bodies, practices, ideas and
technologies)
oFrom this perspective (of mHealth being the actors), mHealth bestow meaning
and subjectivity on their users, just as the users give the mHealth meaning and
incorporate them in their daily lives
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