Evidation helps you make sense of your data

In December of 2022, we launched 2 daily check-in questions about your mood and sleep. Since then, we've had over 18 million responses!

For those with health or fitness tracking apps connected to Evidation, we combine your responses to those daily questions with data from your connected apps, like your activity, sleep, and heart rate data and look for trends. Then, we share what we learn back with you.

How do we determine if there’s a relationship between different types of health data?

To see if there’s a relationship between the different types of health data you log on Evidation, we look for correlations. 

‍How do we do that?

Correlation measures the strength of a connection between two things. If a correlation exists, it can either be positive or negative. 

• A positive correlation means that two variables tend to rise and fall at the same time. For example, height and weight in growing children. When children get taller, their weight also tends to increase. 
• A negative correlation means that two variables tend to rise and fall at opposite times. For example, weather temperature and coat sales. When weather temperatures increase, coat sales tend to decrease.

Why is correlation useful?

Correlation refers to the statistical relationship between two entities. In other words, it's how two variables move in relation to one another. Correlations are important because knowing the correlation, or relationship, between two variables (such as sleep and activity) can help you make decisions that could positively impact your health.

It’s important to highlight that just because there’s a relationship between two variables, doesn’t necessarily mean that one causes the other. The correlation could've been coincidental, or another factor we’re not considering could be affecting both things.  

Although you can't always determine what causes something, understanding correlations is still useful because it points out possible connections and allows you to identify areas where small changes could impact your mental or physical health. 

These small changes could include adding in an extra workout or lengthening your bedtime routine. You can try incorporating changes that make sense to you to see if your mood or sleep improve. If they do, you’ll know it’s working for you. And, if they don’t, you can try something new.

‍Example 1: Mood and Step Count

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For example, let's say an Evidation Member logs into her app and sees this offer card. She notices that on the days she logs more steps, she’s in a better mood. She thinks about why that might be and realizes that she takes more steps on days when she goes for a morning walk before work. This helps her recognize that walking, as well as being outside, might be having a positive impact on her mood and causes her to prioritize her morning walks moving forward.

Example 2: Sleep Quality and Minutes in Deep Sleep

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As another example, say an Evidation Member logs into his app and sees this offer card showing his sleep quality and minutes in deep sleep. He’s intrigued and does some research on deep sleep.  He finds out that deep sleep is the phase of sleep that helps people feel rested when they wake up. He looks up ways to increase his time in deep sleep and starts to adopt habits like exercising earlier in the day and putting away his phone a few hours before sleeping. He continues to monitor his sleep quality through the Daily Check-In in the Evidation app and notices that he’s starting to log more good and very good sleep quality days! He’s glad he took the time to invest in his sleep and overall health.

Conclusion

Ultimately, monitoring your daily data is a great way to become more aware of your health and well-being. It’s a great tool to help you identify small changes you can make to improve your mood, sleep quality, and overall health.

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Many of us want to feel engaged in our health and motivated to meet our goals. Knowledge is power. And we can use it to make positive changes and feel our healthiest.

If that sounds like you, chances are you're part of the 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. who regularly track their health information using apps or wearables.

But it's tough to stay committed when it can take months, or years, to see results. That’s why some are asking: what is Evidation and how can it help me meet my health goals?

The Evidation app is helping millions of people from all over reach their health goals by rewarding them for tracking their health and making healthy choices. 

What is Evidation?

Evidation is a free health app available on Android and Apple devices. It lets you earn money for engaging in health-promoting activities and choosing to participate in research. 

Positive reinforcement for healthy choices

Many of us already take health surveys, track our exercise, log what we eat, read health articles, or use a fitness tracker. If you do, too, then you could be earning Paypal funds and gift cards for activities you may already do.

Your current fitness tracker may reward you with badges and encouraging messages. That's nice.

But in addition to these intangible rewards, you could earn a little passive income—even while you sleep.

Staying more accountable to yourself

Evidation can motivate you not only to take health-promoting steps, but it encourages you to turn those activities into healthy lifelong habits.

Simply track to meet and exceed your fitness goals and earn points doing it.

You’ll eliminate the very human impulse to "fib to yourself" about how much you actually exercised this week, etc. The data doesn't lie.

Track healthy activities over time to see how you improve and gain unbiased insights into steps you can take to achieve your health goals. And when you do have a tough week because you’re sick or feeling unmotivated, you can feel supported with suggestions for taking care of yourself.

Choosing to support healthier communities

Every time you use the Evidation app, you're logging valuable health information that you can choose to share to help others like yourself overcome health challenges and reach their health goals. If or when you choose to take part in research on the app, we compile and aggregate or tokenize the Evidation community's real-world health data so that it can be used to further health research.

Your contribution could help researchers learn how to help people live at their healthiest, whether they're ready to tackle the next marathon or feeling limited by a chronic condition. And if you’re not comfortable with that, there are still many other ways for you to enjoy the Evidation app.

Learn more about how we protect your privacy and data here. 

How does it work?

Let's take a closer look at how this works! You get rewarded with points for engaging in health-promoting activities. This positive reinforcement can help you build healthy habits that stick over time. To start, just connect the app to one of many fitness-tracking apps you probably already have. Then tracking your activity is easy. You can earn automatically and turn those points into a payout. Plus, when you answer questions and respond to surveys in the app, we compare your responses to your activity data and share back insights you can use to recognize patterns, understand where you’re at, and take control of your health.

How it works:

1. Visit your device’s app store to download the Evidation app.
2. Provide some basic information for your profile. This information is important to connect you with opportunities and provide you with curated information.

We do not share your health data without permission. Our Privacy Notice can give you more insight into our privacy principles and how we collect, handle, and protect your personal information and data. You can also learn more by contacting our Privacy Office at privacy@evidation.com. 

3. Connect the Evidation app to one of dozens of fitness-tracking apps.
4. Come back to the app daily to answer health-related questions, track your mood, sleep, and more, and receive personalized health tips and related articles.
5. Earn points for your daily activity and for actions you take in the app.
6. Cash out through Paypal or gift cards.

Compatible health trackers

When you download the app and sign up, it will automatically identify compatible health fitness apps you already use on that device. All you have to do is choose the one, or more, you want the Evidation app to pull your data from.

You don't even have to have a wearable tracker. You can also log your data in the free health-tracking app of your choice. It then communicates directly with Evidation, so you never miss out on points.

Some compatible wearables include:

• Fitbit
• Apple Watch
• Garmin
• Misfit
• Oura Ring

Some other compatible health-tracking apps where you may already log health and fitness information include:

• MyFitnessPal
• Apple Health
• Strava
• Withings
• Daily Mile
• MyLife
• Qardio
• MapMyFitness
• MapMyHike
• MapMyRide
• MapMyRun
• MapMyWalk
• RunDouble
• RunKeeper
• Samsung Health
• Record

When you sign up, you can choose categories of information you want to share. And if you want to do more and participate in research or a program, we’ll ask you if you want to and whether you’d like to share your data for those purposes before it starts. If we don’t hear from you, we take that as a, “No”. So, you control the data you share—always.

Why is health research so important?

According to NIH.gov, "Health research has high value to society. It can provide important information about disease trends and risk factors, outcomes of treatment or public health interventions, functional abilities, patterns of care, and health care costs and use."

A lot of health research occurs in labs in a controlled environment. On the one hand, this helps researchers gather consistent and reliable information.

But lab studies are also limiting.

For one, the number or makeup of participants in the study may not represent the population as a whole. At the same time, observer bias can occur.

That's where people act differently because they know they're being watched. They want to meet the expectations of the observer (the researcher). It's a recognized issue that can change (or bias) a study's outcome.

All methods of scientific research have strengths and weaknesses. That's why it's so important to perform different kinds of research in various settings to get the whole picture—and to learn how specific differences can impact outcomes.

By tracking the data of thousands or millions of people in their everyday lives, researchers can see how people act when they're not actively aware they're being observed. That's the gap the Evidation app can help to fill by collecting this real-world data and sharing it with researchers. 

And remember: you get to choose when to share your health data.

Additionally, the data collected through the Evidation app looks at a wider swath of the population. So, this data can be more representative of the population as a whole.

This allows our researchers to identify subsets of individuals (anonymously) that require further research. Researchers make connections that can improve doctors' abilities to provide more personalized and effective care for patients.

Every time you choose to participate in health research, you contribute toward valuable societal improvements. You help yourself and others live at your (and their) healthiest. You're also powering the future health innovations that could positively impact people for decades to come.

And we think you deserve to be rewarded for that!

Earn Evidation rewards for making health-promoting choices

You can earn rewards passively by sharing the data your fitness tracker logs automatically with the Evidation app. Earn points just for logging:

• Sleep
• Exercise
• Meditation
• Weight
• Body fat percentage
• What you eat
• And more

If you already have a wearable tracker or smart scale, you may not need to do anything extra to earn your points. Just connect it to the Evidation app and start earning.

However, you can earn points even faster and receive valuable health insights by reading health-related articles, taking surveys, and participating in health research through the app. 

10,000 points = $10. And with so many ways to earn, those points can add up fast.

Every health-promoting choice matters

At the end of the day, getting healthier and achieving optimal health both come down to hundreds of little choices you make every day.

It's hard to see the benefits—or negative impacts—of choices in real time. This makes staying motivated more difficult. The Evidation app provides instant feedback because you can see your earned point balance rising.

Make healthy choices a habit

A lot of people want to make healthy decisions for their life and improve their health. A recent survey published by Gov.UK found that 80% of adults had been motivated to get healthier due to the recent pandemic. The global sentiment has been much the same.

But for this motivation to stick, people must form healthy habits. A behavior has to become automatic and that’s easier said than done.

Research shows an activity will "become habitual when it is frequently and consistently performed in the same context." 

The Evidation app provides real motivation to stick with the health-promoting activity until it becomes a habit.

For example, instead of allowing you to earn endless points by doing all your health-promoting activities in one day, the app caps you out at a certain number of points for each healthy activity each day. This encourages you to come back tomorrow and do it again. And again.

The repetition and consistency make it a habit.

Are you wondering, "is Evidation legit?" We invite you to see how real people like you are taking charge of their health and contributing to health research with us. We think you’ll love the inspiring stories from our community of Evidation Members.

Benefits of making healthier decisions

Regardless of where you are health-wise, the little choices you make matter. Making healthier decisions consistently can deliver several immediate and lasting benefits:

1. Stay accountable with unbiased data
2. Use data to optimize athletic performance
3. Lower your risk of developing various lifestyle diseases
4. Improve management of a chronic condition you live with
5. Lessen the impact disease symptoms may have on your life
6. Promote physical, emotional, and mental health and wellness
7. Reach your health goals
8. Make it easier to develop healthy habits for life

So, what is Evidation's role in all of this? We give you rewards for tracking your health and wellness information every day, and we share back with you trends and insights based on your data and how you respond to daily check-ins and surveys. We also share personalized health content and tips. As a result, you have the potential to realize these and other benefits of making healthy decisions. 

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Last June, Evidation Members started seeing a new kind of offer in the Evidation app—the Daily Check-In. These Check-Ins provided what proved to be a much-needed opportunity to pause for a moment of reflection.

Inspired by the overwhelmingly positive response to the Daily Check-In offer, in December we created the Daily Mood and Daily Sleep Quality Check-Ins. Look familiar?

Since launch, over 4 million of these new check-ins have been completed! 

Today, we’re sharing some insightful and intriguing findings based on the responses, from changes in mood during the holiday season to the connection between sleep quality and mood. 

Mood and Sleep During the Holidays

Perhaps it’s no surprise that the festive spirit has a positive impact on our mood, but Christmas Day (December 25th) proved to be the day with the highest mood reported since we launched the Daily Mood Check-In on December 7th.

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More specifically, on Christmas Day:

• 31% of people reported they were in an excellent mood, which is 8% higher than the average.
• 78% of people reported they were in a good or excellent mood, which is over 6% higher than the average. 

Christmas wasn’t the only holiday where we saw a spike in good cheer. People also reported better moods than average on New Year’s Eve. 74% of people reported they were in a good or excellent mood, which is over 2% higher than the average.

What about sleep? It appears people had better sleep quality than usual on the first night of 2023. 77% reported good or very good sleep that night, which is over 3% higher than the average. 

Perhaps after staying up until midnight (or later) the night before, members needed a chance to catch up on some much-needed sleep. We can’t be sure, but let’s call it a reasonable hunch!

In Other Sleep News…

Since launching the Daily Sleep Quality Check-In, we’ve found that Evidation Members generally report good sleep quality. 74% report good or very good sleep, to be exact.

Our last Community Results post shared which days of the week people felt best. But which day of the week comes out on top when it comes to sleep quality? 

‍Based on the Daily Sleep Quality Check-In, we’ve found members report:

• The highest sleep quality on Friday nights, with 76% of members reporting good or very good sleep quality.
• The lowest sleep quality on Monday nights, with 73% of members reporting good or very good sleep quality. 

You may be wondering about the connection between sleep quality and the amount of sleep members get. Fortunately, since many of our Evidation Members have a connected app such as Fitbit or Oura, we’re able to see if there’s a connection. 

When members reported good or very good sleep, they slept an average of 7 hours and 11 minutes a night. That’s 11% more than when members reported poor or very poor sleep. See the chart below for more details. 

Mood, Steps, and Sleep Quality

The results are in, and we see an undeniable connection between more steps and an improved mood.

Since launching the Daily Mood Check-Ins, we’ve found that Evidation Members who said they were in an excellent mood walked an average of 8,600 steps a day. That’s 19% more than members who said they were in a bad mood.

When it comes to mood and sleep quality, 96% of members reported they were in a good or excellent mood on days following a night of very good sleep. 

Stay tuned for our next round of findings in the coming weeks, and don’t forget to fill out your Daily Mood and Daily Sleep Quality Check-Ins to participate and contribute!

Whether you’re working on resolutions like doubling your average daily step count, or dreaming up epic spring break travel plans, the beginning of the new year is a great time to gear up for what’s to come.

But before we get too far down the line on our future plans, it’s important to pause and reflect on what went well in 2022. For the Evidation community, 2022 was full of exciting programs, interesting health insights, and a wide variety of opportunities to earn points for everyday actions. 

For example, last year Evidation Members…

• Earned 8 billion points
• Completed 45 million offers
• Redeemed millions of dollars in rewards

What came out on top in terms of time of year, where new members hail from, and more? 

We’ve analyzed the stats, and found that in 2022: 

• Members were most active in May, and least active in January. 
• California emerged as the state with the most new Evidation Members.
• Overall, Fitbit is the app that most members have connected to Evidation, but in 2022 more members connected Apple Health than any other app.

Speaking of connected apps, in 2022 members like you logged a total of…

• 952 billion steps. That’s like the equivalent of walking around the earth 18,000 times!
• Climbed 929 million floors. That’s like walking up the Empire State Building over 9 million times!
• 2 billion minutes of exercise
• 349 million hours of sleep
• Aside from walking, biking and swimming were the most commonly-tracked exercise activities. 
• Swimming and breathwork were the fastest-growing types of tracked exercise compared to last year.

All Things New in 2022

Evidation rolled out new features and programs in 2022, including…

‍Personalized Insights: How did your average daily steps compare to the average for other Evidation Members in your state? What’s your sleep chronotype? In 2022 we helped you make sense of your activity data with personalized insights. 

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‍Daily Check-Ins: Many of us know that our mood is easily influenced by things like sleep and exercise. However, in 2022 we took a deeper dive to see exactly how our members’ mood relates to other aspects of their day-to-day life. 

We began asking members about how they felt on a daily basis with a Daily Check-In offer, and were able to share personalized insights back with members. Recently, we added in additional daily check-ins, such as the Daily Sleep Quality Check-In. Since launching our first check-in back in June, we’ve received over 15 million responses!

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‍FluSmart: After the success of the Flu Monitoring program over the last two years, we launched year three of the program—this time with a shiny new name: FluSmart! The program looks for changes in your activity data from wearable devices, and alerts you when a change suggests you may be feeling under the weather. 

Coming Up in 2023

2022 was a great year for Evidation, and we suspect 2023 will continue to bring new and exciting things for our members. Here are a few things you can look forward to in the new year on Evidation:

‍More Personalized Insights 

Using Daily Check-Ins, connected apps, and more, we’ll continue to share new personalized insights. These insights provide an opportunity for members like you to reflect on changes to your physical and mental health, and figure out what might be causing trends in your mood, sleep, and more. 

For example, maybe you figure out that your mood is best on certain days of the week, or your sleep quality is influenced by your daily step count. Whatever it may be, it’s always helpful to learn more about your everyday activity in order to improve your health!

Refreshed Homescreen: You can expect to see an improved layout and new features in the home screen this year, including: 

• Easier navigation, with offer cards sorted by importance and relevance. 
• An improved view into how you’ve earned your points—and how close you are to reaching your 10,000 point goal!

From everyone here at Evidation, thank you for making 2022 one of our best years yet, and cheers to 2023!

‍*Note: Data shared in this post represents totals from January 1, 2022 to December 21, 2022. ‍

Health research is very important for improving health care for all. 

As we mentioned in a previous article, What is Health Research?,  this type of research helps medical researchers understand people’s health and how we can make treatments better for everyone. 

But health research isn’t possible without the contributions of research participants. Research participants are volunteers who consent (in other words, give their permission) to be in a study. They provide the data (from surveys, lab tests, interviews, etc.) that researchers need to answer important questions that improve health care. 

In fact, research participants are the most important part of research — without participants, medical advancements can’t happen!

Why participate in research?

There are a lot of great reasons to participate in research! Some common reasons people participate include:

• Contributing to medical science
• Learning more about health and health research
• Wanting to help improve treatment options for a variety of conditions
• Wanting to find a better treatment for a condition they have

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Whatever your personal reasons for participating, being a part of health-related research can have a lasting impact.  

Why do researchers need research participants?

Did you know that most research studies don’t enroll enough people on time? When this happens, research efforts to develop medications, devices, and treatments get delayed. It causes studies to take longer than expected and ends up costing researchers more. This can lead to increased medication prices and delays in getting new treatments to market.

These factors limit progress in developing new treatments for conditions like Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, Cancers, Autoimmune Disorders, and many others. 

Many of us have loved ones or know someone living with a condition that has no treatment and limited options for improving quality of life.

You may wonder, “with all the science and technology in the world, why isn’t there a cure or better treatment for this condition?” 

Without research and participants, we can’t develop new or improved treatments.

That’s why it’s important that those who want to participate in health research have the ability and support to do so. 

How to participate in research

There are many ways to learn about research participation opportunities. You can find opportunities online, in ads, through medical professionals, on the Evidation app, and more. 

Here are some resources that can get you started if you’re interested in participating in a study!

• Evidation Studies specializes in decentralized research which is an easy way to contribute to medical science. To learn how to participate in one of our studies, check out our article How to Participate in a Research Study on Evidation. You can also download the Evidation app to learn more!
• Check out clinicaltrials.gov, which is a registry of clinical trials that provides the public with information on past and current trials.
• Talk to your healthcare providers to see if they know of research studies that may apply to you.

Want to know more about any of our Evidation Studies and how to get involved? Check out How to Participate in a Research Study on Evidation or reach out to us at study@evidation.com and one of our friendly team members can help you get started. 

If you want additional general information on health research, we recommend checking out the following public resources: 

• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office for Human Research Protections
• FDA, Clinical Trials and Human Subject Protection
• National Institutes of Health (NIH), Educational Resources

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Many researchers agree that personality is made up of 5 unique traits: Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Openness, Neuroticism, and Extraversion. Members on the Evidation platform were recently invited to complete a survey that measured conscientiousness.

What is conscientiousness?

Conscientiousness describes the degree to which a person is organized, determined, and likely to follow norms and rules. 

• High scorers tend to work hard to achieve their goals and complete tasks they’ve started. They also tend to get higher grades in school and perform better in many jobs, but are more likely to experience perfectionism and fear of failure.
• Low scorers tend to act spontaneously instead of making plans. While they may be a bit disorganized, they’re also more likely to be flexible with decision making, and able to bounce back from setbacks. Overall, they may find it easier to look at the big picture than to pay attention to details. 

Why does conscientiousness matter for health?

Research has found that individuals who are high in conscientiousness tend to live longer and healthier lives. Why? Individuals who are high in conscientiousness tend to be rule followers, and are more likely to follow health recommendations. For example, on average, conscientious people drink less alcohol, eat healthier, and are more likely to wear seat belts.

Conscientious people may also have healthier coping mechanisms–that is, ways to deal with negative life events–than individuals who are less conscientious. For example, people who are conscientious are more likely to try to solve a difficult problem than to use an emotional escape.

For example, a highly conscientious person might think, “How can I fit in daily walking to reduce my cholesterol levels?”

And a less conscientious person might think, “I’ll watch TV now and think about my cholesterol tomorrow.” 

What does this mean for me?

Although research has found that conscientiousness relates to mental and physical health, having a low score doesn’t mean you’re destined to poor health. Regardless of your own conscientiousness, you can use what research has uncovered about personality and health to improve your own wellbeing. 

If you’d like to increase your conscientious behavior for better health, aim to set small, achievable goals. Below are some techniques you may find useful: 

• Reflect on how to avoid or overcome obstacles. Imagine your desired future self and think about the obstacles you may face in becoming that person. For example, if your goal is to become a less distracted driver, an obstacle might be that you’re eager to look at your phone whenever you see an incoming message. One way to overcome this obstacle might be to set your phone to “do not disturb” when driving so that you can’t see the alerts and are reminded to break the habit of looking.
• Create “if-then” plans for handling situations related to your health goals. For example, if you want to reduce your tobacco consumption, your if-then plan may look like this: “If I crave a cigarette, then I’ll take a five minute walk instead.” 
• Track your progress and celebrate small victories. For example, if your goal is to walk more, set a small, specific, and achievable goal: “I’ll walk for 5 minutes every morning after I finish my coffee.” As your walks become a habit, increase the time of your walks, but be careful not to let missed walks discourage you–you can pick up again tomorrow!

…and don’t forget, start small to set yourself up for success!

Return of Results to Participants

When researchers want to learn more about people and their health, they perform research studies. The individuals who agree to participate in these studies are called participants. 

Participants belong to a large community of people who are helping researchers learn more about important health conditions and treatments. They play a key role in research studies by contributing their time and information about their health (researchers call this, personal health data) to help us better understand certain health conditions or behaviors. 

Because participants devote their time, data, and effort to research that can improve health care for all, it’s important that participants receive value in return for their contributions. 

‍One important way to give value back to participants is to give them a summary of the study they participated in. Study summaries are easy-to-read descriptions of the research conducted.

What information is found in study summaries?

The content and format of study summaries is different depending on the study. At Evidation Studies, our study summaries are typically sent as emails and may include the following information:

• Why the study was done
• What happened during the study
• Who participated in the study
• What the results of the study were
• Where you can learn more

These summaries are a great way for participants to see the impact they made when participating in study. Sometimes, participants may even be able to extract useful information from the summaries that they can use to improve their day-to-day health.

Why are study summaries important?

Participants contribute their personal health data to scientific studies. Understanding the impact of those studies and the contribution their data makes can be rewarding and can positively impact their research experience. 

For example, these summaries can help participants understand the overall study outcomes. They can also explain what the study results really mean. They allow participants to engage with the study on a deeper level. Sometimes, the results can even give participants insight into their own health and how to improve it.

Evidation Studies is committed to continuously identifying ways to improve the study experience, and we’ve started to return study summaries to participants when possible. We will continue to work towards a better understanding of the needs of our participants, so that we can return value in the most meaningful ways possible.  

Want to know more about any of our Evidation Studies and how to get involved? Check out How to Get Involved in Evidation Studies, or reach out to us at study@evidation.com and one of our friendly team members can help you get started.. 

If you want additional general information on health research, we recommend checking out the following public resources: 

• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office for Human Research Protections
• FDA, Clinical Trials and Human Subject Protection
• National Institutes of Health (NIH), Educational Resources
• Clinical Research Resource HUB, Resources for Participants

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We’ve been asking our members how they feel every day since June, in what was previously called the Daily Mood Survey. We’ve since renamed this offer to the Daily Check-In, and we’re excited to share an update on our findings. 

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In our last community results post, we talked about the connection between how you feel and your activity levels. Since that last post, the percentage of responses for feeling “Good” has gone up—from 57% to 61%. See average results for July and August below:

• Good: 61%
• Okay: 33%
• Bad: 5%

With over 7.7 million responses to-date, today we’ll take a deeper dive to see how things like day of the week, time of day, sleep, and exercise relate to how our members feel day-to-day. 

‍Day of Week & Time of Day

The last community results post showed that when it comes to how members feel, the "best" days were Saturday and Sunday and the "worst" days were Monday and Thursday. 

What has continued to ring true is that people are generally in good spirits on the weekends—Saturday and Sunday remained the "best" days for responses in July and August.

However, alongside Monday (no shock there), Wednesday replaced Thursday as one of the two “worst” days in terms of how people felt.  

But what about time of day? We found that the hours of the day when people respond most optimistically are mornings and early afternoons, specifically:

• 9AM-10AM
• 12PM-1PM 

For the time periods above, Good = 62%.

We can compare this to the least optimistic hours, which are 12AM-4AM (Good = 55%).

‍Amount of Sleep

For members who track their sleep, we took a look at how the amount they sleep in a given night affects how they feel the next day. 

‍We found that when members slept at least 7 hours the night before, they were more likely to respond that they felt good the next day (56% vs. 52%). 

This indicates that people feel better when they get an adequate amount of sleep.

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For example, if Evidation Member "Sally" sleeps less than 7 hours on August 1, and more than 7 hours on August 2 she is more likely to respond that she feels good on August 3, which is the day after she slept more than 7 hours. 

If we combine "Sally's" data with data from all of our members, we find that members are about 7% more likely to feel good on days they slept for more than 7 hours.

‍Exercise

For members who’ve connected their workout data to Evidation, we wanted to see if working out affected how they felt in the 24 hours post-workout. 

‍We found that members who worked out in the 24 hours prior to their response were more likely to respond that they felt good (65% vs. 59%). 

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Additionally, this finding lines up with a survey we shared in August asking our members if they felt better when they were more active. Out of 40,000 responses, 91% of members responded "yes".

Want to receive personalized insights for how things like sleep, exercise, and more affect how you feel? Connect an activity app or wearable to your Evidation account, and be sure to answer the Daily Check-In offer (found on the app home screen) as regularly as possible. 

Better yet, you’ll receive more points to reach your 10k point goal!

‍The Daily Check-In offer is only available in the app at this time. If you typically log in on the web, be sure to download the app.‍

With almost 5 million members, we’ve been able to launch a variety of health research efforts that study topics like chronic pain, how people use their wearable devices, and sleep patterns. 

We've partnered with healthcare and life sciences companies to launch large-scale research programs that look at type 2 diabetes, heart disease, the flu, Alzheimer’s Disease, and most recently COVID-19, to name a few.

With over 77 research publications, we’d like to highlight two notable studies to give you a better idea of the impact our members have when they decide to participate in a study.

DiSCover Program (Digital Signals in Chronic Pain)

About 50 million people in the United States suffer from chronic pain. 

In 2018, Evidation launched the DiSCover Program, a study designed to help us gain a better understanding of what it’s like to live with this condition. More than 10,000 members participated in the program over the course of a year. 

We looked at patterns in activity levels and asked participants to take daily surveys in order to get a better understanding of the day-to-day impact of living with chronic pain. 

Here’s what we learned from these participants:

• Chronic pain had an impact on participants’ physical activity. On average, they were about 25% less active than those without chronic pain.
• Chronic pain affected participants with many different conditions (for example, fibromyalgia, cancer, arthritis, etc.).
• To manage their pain, participants used a wide range of treatment options from over-the-counter pain medications and prescription opioid medications to meditation apps, medical marijuana, and acupuncture treatment.
• Participants with chronic pain reported lower quality of life and had higher rates of depression and anxiety symptoms than those without chronic pain. 

Through their participation, these study participants helped our researchers understand their lived experiences with chronic pain.

COVID Signals Study

At the height of the pandemic in 2020, Evidation and our study partners launched the COVID Signals Study.

Over 800 individuals who were at higher risk of getting COVID-19 (for example, doctors, nurses, and first responders) joined the study. They provided data from wearables, lab tests, and surveys for over 3 months. 

Together, these participants completed: 

• 59,485 daily surveys 
• 7,571 weekly and monthly surveys
• 6,328 weekly COVID-19 test kits
• 841 final surveys

This information is helping us explore if there are ways to predict when someone might be sick, and what their recovery might look like. 

How can I learn more?

These are just a couple examples of how participants like you make research possible. As a result, individuals living with conditions like chronic pain, COVID-19, and others can potentially benefit from this new research. 

Want to know more about any of our Evidation Studies and how to get involved? Check out How to Get Involved in Evidation Studies, or reach out to us at study@evidation.com and one of our friendly team members can help you get started. 

If you want additional general information on health research, we recommend checking out the following public resources: 

• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office for Human Research Protections
• FDA, Clinical Trials and Human Subject Protection
• National Institutes of Health (NIH), Educational Resources
• Clinical Research Resource HUB, Resources for Participants

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