The LinkedIn Corporation and Stanford University’s Mind & Body Lab, together with Spire, the world’s first wearable device to track breathing patterns, has unveiled the results of the first and only known study of wearable technology and health trackers in a corporate setting for stress management.
The results of the 30-day study were compelling, showing that workers who wore Spire health trackers – a small, pebble-sized device that clips to a belt buckle or bra strap – experienced significantly less stress and negative moods, as well as more productive and “focused” work hours than non-Spire users.
The study analysed a subset of 225 LinkedIn employees – 114 of whom were given a Spire to wear versus a 111-employee control group. Employees in both groups work in a wide variety of roles at LinkedIn and included members from the company’s product, legal, marketing, engineering and finance teams. 47% of the participants were female, with the overall group having an average age of 34.
The Spire health trackers and accompanying app was created to provide individuals with greater training in breath regulation without distracting them from workplace tasks. To do this, the Spire device unobtrusively senses breathing patterns and alerts the user of noteworthy changes. The results of Spire’s study indicate that there is a clear benefit in the use of wearable health trackers as a scalable means of improving stress response for improved health, wellbeing and productivity.
For the study, the intervention and control group conducted identical 15-minute psychometric assessments both before and after the study to evaluate median respiratory characteristics for the intervention group. Once the 30 days were completed and Spire had analysed participants’ data, the study found that the intervention group using the device experienced less stress, stress symptoms, anxious days and negative moods, as well as more energetic days as compared to the control group. The intervention group also experienced more physiological states of calm and focus.
LinkedIn’s Global Wellness Manager Michael Susi said: “Our employees are our greatest asset – especially their health and minds. They used Spire to make tangible improvements to things that can seem fleeting – focus, distraction and productivity. Lowering stress while increasing productivity is crucial to the success of any business, and to be able to do both of those with one device is rather powerful.”
Full results of this peer-reviewed study will be formally shown in poster format at the annual Anxiety and Depression Association of America’s conference in April. Some of those include:
Compared to the control group, the Spire group experienced:
- 10% decrease on the Perceived Stress Scale (p<0.05)
- 12% decrease in stress symptoms on the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (p=0.001),
- 11% decrease in negative affect on the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (p=0.005)
- 5 (27%) fewer anxious days
- 5 (35%) more energetic days
- 37% more calm
- 25% more focus-related breathing patterns.
- 15% more tension-related breathing patterns attributed to the learning curve associated with any new technology.
Spire users in the study reported:
- 61% of employees said that using Spire taught them to alter the level of stress they experience.
- 75% of employees said that they have acquired new knowledge and skills as a result of the Spire stress study program.
- 58% of employees said that they implemented the knowledge and skills about stress reduction learned through Spire and its app.
For more information, please find the complete study here.
