April 2020: Springing Back

Every day may not be good, but there is good in everyday.

In the EVŌ Insider post, Wellness Trends in the Age of COVID-19, the team at EVŌ took an early look at the immediate activity and behavior changes we saw with our EVŌ users in March. We saw daily steps reduced, as we all hunkered down not knowing what the next day brought. Total sleep hours were impacted on very specific days tied to a barrage of breaking news events.

As we roll into May, we’re taking another look at what the data tells us about how we pushed through April.

Activity By Gender

This time we took a deeper look into the EVŌ users to find any trends specific to gender. Below is a comparison of Average Steps by Day by Gender for March 2020 and April 2020.

Note: The March metrics start on March 9th, as EVŌ was running a competition that ended the first month of March. Since we see an increase in activity from competitions, we did not include that week in our analysis so that the review is closer to our users’ normal activity levels. 

Right off the bat we see that while March saw a downward trend of Average Daily Steps, April started to pick back up! Some interesting observations:

• In March the downward trend for Males and Females was very similar, and in April the trend line shows a similar increase in steps.
• The Average Steps in April are lower than March, but the steps for March 9-13th skew the March numbers as our users’ activity was at a more typical level.
• The biggest difference we note is that the Females continued to have higher Average Steps than the Males and had less of a decrease between March and April:
  • Females: 151 Average Steps less than March
  • Males: 722 less Average Steps less than March

Activity By Age Range

Holy data goodness … this was interesting to put together! When we broke down the age ranges by five year increments, we saw the story our EVŌ users’ data was telling us about their activity and their ability to rebound, adjust, and refocus in April.

Some age cohorts fared better at maintaining their activity level during so much change in March, and other cohorts kicked it up in April as perhaps we became more used to the current normal. Let’s break this down:

In general, ages 18-54 all saw a dramatic decrease of Average Steps in March. This could be attributed to several factors including:

• Less walking during commutes whether that’s walking on a college campus from class to class or using public transportation to get to the office.
• Closures of gyms and group exercise activities.
• Suspension of kids’ extracurricular activities. Remember, steps aren’t just those we do as a part of active, intentional exercise. Those steps to and from the kids’ sports field, grocery shopping, out for dinner, etc. all add up, and a lot of that activity was reduced.
• A near complete abandonment of focusing on what we needed personally to be able to focus all of our attention on work, home, and changes for our family and kids. Chaos and crisis leads to our innately human ability to triage what’s really important. I know my own activity fell by the wayside in those weeks to make sure my family had what they needed.

In March users in the 55+ age ranges did not show as dramatic of a drop in Average Steps, which in all honesty really surprised us. Are we maybe more resilient to change as we get older? Are habits that include activity more ingrained and hard to stop suddenly? I think this is probably a case where we should look for horses instead of zebras, and simply put, when you’ve experience more as life goes on, the ups and downs are easier to handle and triage.

April is a whole other story. With the exception of two age cohorts, every group either increased or continued to steady their Average Steps for April. Some of them were drastic. With gyms still closed, and group activity diminished, how did the steps increase? Remember those passive steps! Who started a new hobby that brought you outside, cleaned out the basement or garage, re-arranged closets, started a new garden or refreshed your landscaping? Steps are steps whether they are sustained activity or a lot of little bursts here and there. Shout out to our fantastic EVŌ users who kicked it up this month!

There are sure to be studies about the sociological and psychological impact stay-at-home orders have on us, but even in the last month the data is showing us that we’ve started to reset, refocus, find our new normal and adapted the best we can day to day, and are moving forward. At the simplest level, isn’t that what we want? We want to feel normal again. Advertisers are focused on our desire to be united, find stable footing and to just feel O.K.

Here Comes The Sun

To our EVŌ users – you all are doing great! Don’t look at this moment and fret about what didn’t get done today. I really challenge us all to take a monent and open the EVŌ app. Tap your Wellness Ring and select Steps. Tap Range and select a 30 day range. Look at your active days, at your trend, at the changes – even if they’re small – you’re making them day by day. Envision what next week will look like, plan it, and do it.

We’re in Spring now, and we’re starting to see the sun more and feel the warmth of health, family, community, and triumph.

Be Well and EVŌ On! #EVO

-Carrie Baum
Sr. Director of Product Development