More and more French people are using connected objects, and in half of the cases it is to monitor their health. However, these technological tools do not convince the French.
The connected object is heralded as the next technological revolution, in particular in the field of health. If we estimate the number of connected objects at 15 billion today, they should be 80 billion in 2020. These objects have the particularity of being able to “communicate” with each other, to exchange information (weight, temperature, blood pressure, etc.) .) with databases, or even doctors and therefore allow very precise monitoring of his health. France, however, remains on the sidelines of the movement.
Data shared with healthcare professionals
According to an Ifop poll conducted at the end of November, only 11% of French people say they own a device connected to the Internet. The most preferred connected objects are scales (6%) and watches (2%) on par with blood pressure monitors and activity trackers. For the 11% convinced by the connected object, the link with health is obvious. Indeed: 50% use it mainly to monitor or improve their health, 61% are in favor of sharing the data collected thanks to this object, mainly with a representative of the medical profession, and 38% even believe that these connected objects could be considered as full medical care. The French surveyed consider connected objects as “coaches” since 26% rely on them to “encourage them to make an effort” and 22% to “get to know each other better”.
50% are not convinced by the effectiveness of these devices
But the majority of French people are still very far from being convinced by its objects, the main obstacles to purchasing being the lack of confidence in the quality of measurements and mistrust in the use of data and the risk of intrusion into private life. 50% evoke their lack of conviction on the effectiveness of the measures carried out by the devices; 29% speak of an intrusion in their daily life; 19% fear constant monitoring; 12% allude to their fear of difficulties in using said objects and 10% fear becoming addicted. Another obstacle to the expansion of its terminals, health professionals are not the driving force in the dissemination of these measurement tools: only 16% of owners of connected objects know about them through their pharmacy and only 9% through the body. medical.
But this position could change. 12% of people who do not own objects connected to the Internet say they have a prospect of purchasing this type of object in the next 3 years. The market could thus double in the next period to affect 11 million people in 2017.
This survey was carried out by IFOP from 20 to 22 November 2013 on a representative sample of 1001 people aged 18 and over.
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