Stage 5 - Field Evidence

Highlights

• The largest field study to date was a US Navy deployment by Kubala and colleagues, published in Applied Ergonomics in 2024, covering 845 active duty sailors across five warship cohorts and over 10,000 person-days of continuous data
• Each sailor wore an Oura Ring and a Readyband simultaneously, with malfunction rates of about 1.2% and 2.2%, and wear prevalence of roughly 69% and 71%, showing the hardware works despite ship motion and salt water
• Feedback was found to drive usage more than battery life, since the Oura's daily summaries encouraged wear despite frequent charging, while older sailors used both devices more consistently than younger ones
• Four lessons are drawn: form factor must match the job, user feedback drives use, adoption is a social process needing onboard support, and genuine workforce demand exists, but trust must be earned
• A Korean pilot study by Kim, Park, and colleagues in 2025 with 11 seafarers over 12 weeks showed statistically significant blood pressure reductions, though only three participants, all with prior experience, wished to continue afterward