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
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
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.
