In a world of self-optimization, people are increasingly turning to technology like sleep trackers, smartwatches, and over-the-counter continuous glucose monitors to understand their health. No matter the health measures they intend to track, these wearable technologies share information while also telling you what you can do with it.

With some consumers now paying direct attention to health feedback, wearables may take what felt like abstract and distant health consequences and root them in more immediate behavior change.

Recent research published by the wearable brand WHOOP offers an intriguing glimpse of what that could look like.

The peer-reviewed observational study included 12,678 new WHOOP users, followed for 72 weeks. During this time, the subjects’ reported daily tobacco use fell from 55.1% to 27.2%. Among participants who used tobacco at the beginning of the study and had follow-up data, 28.2% reported no tobacco use during the study’s final period. Interestingly, the study reported that people who engaged more consistently with their own data tended to reduce their tobacco use more than those who didn’t. And, not surprisingly, participants in the study who substantially reduced their tobacco use also experienced favorable changes in resting heart rate, respiratory rate, and sleep duration.

There are caveats to interpreting findings from this study. Notably, the data do not establish that wearing the device caused people to reduce or quit tobacco use. Tobacco use was self-reported, and the study included tobacco broadly rather than separating cigarettes, vaping, cigars, or smokeless products. We also don’t know if or what type of cessation methods may have been deployed by those who reduced use.

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