Can a digital health programme reduce mortality rates?

Can a digital health programme reduce mortality rates? That’s the question Swiss Re set out to explore in its publication titled "A digital health programme's impact on mortality". The publication is an analysis of LumiHealth, a health and wellness engagement
programme developed in partnership between the Singapore government and Apple.

The results demonstrate how analytics capabilities can quantify mortality impact from digital programmes – an important step in understanding the return on investment, which could have far-reaching implications for individuals, insurers, and healthcare systems.

Launched as part of Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative, LumiHealth was designed to encourage healthier lifestyles through activity tracking, incentives, and behaviour-based engagement.

Singapore’s Health Promotion Board collaborated with Swiss Re to analyse aggregated and anonymized data from LumiHealth to understand the programme's effectiveness, including quantifying the possible impacts of the programme on mortality.

Swiss Re's analysis of 30 000 participants (a subset of the Lumihealth population) shows that LumiHealth participants increased their activity levels during the programme. Activity levels – the key driver of positive behaviour change within the programme were on the up. Participants who engaged with LumiHealth for five or more months, during the two-year period from Jan 2022 to Dec 2023, averaged a 22% increase in their physical activity levels compared to pre-programme levels.

Sustaining this improvement over the long term could have translated into meaningful health outcomes. Swiss Re estimates that the boost in activity could lead to a future potential average reduction in expected mortality rate of between 3% – 13% across all LumiHealth participants, assuming the activity improvements are sustained until old age.

One of the most striking outcomes of LumiHealth was its ability to engage groups that are often left behind by digital health initiatives that focus on younger, more active participants. For LumiHealth:

• 60% of participants had a higher body mass index (BMI) of 23 and above (which is the baseline criteria for overweight in Asia).
• 20% were aged 50 or above.
• 24% were sedentary pre-programme, with less than 200 active calories burned per day.

For these groups, the potential mortality benefits were greater. Participants aged 60+ and those who were inactive before joining saw the highest levels of app engagement, significant increases in physical activity levels, and the largest estimated future potential mortality reductions.

A consistent finding across the analysis was the link between app usage and health benefits. The more time spent on the app, and doing physical activity workouts, the higher the improvements in mortality. Put simply: the more you engaged with the app, the more you exercised, and therefore the better the results.

Participants with higher app engagement saw greater increases in activity—and in turn, larger estimated reductions in mortality. This reinforces the importance of sustained, engaging digital experiences in driving long-term behaviour change.

After six years of programme success, the LumiHealth programme will conclude on 31 May 2026. Users may continue their health journey through HPB’s Healthy 365 app where they may similarly track their progress in physical activity, nutrition, mental wellness and sleep.

The implications extend beyond public health to the insurance industry.  Swiss Re's analysis estimated that mortality reductions at this level across a similar population could lead to potential term Life insurance claims cost savings between SGD 2 - 8 per adult per month for a 500 000 SGD sum assured, depending on the type of cover and insurer profile.

The approach used here may help inform stakeholders to assess other types of digital health programmes; while considering the short-term nature of the observation period (two years), the sustainability of the physical activity improvements over the long-term and the impact of the specific programme features.

While healthcare and medical claims were not assessed in this analysis, corresponding reductions could have also been expected in those areas.

Swiss Re has been at the forefront of supporting insurers with wearable-driven solutions for over a decade. From preferential reinsurance rates and tailored underwriting to behavioural consulting and experience studies, Swiss Re brings deep expertise in both mortality analysis, health and wellness programmes and digital health engagement.

These actionable insights empower insurers to design products that encourage healthier behaviours and support healthier, longer lives at scale.

At Swiss Re, we believe that combining well-structured, reward-based digital health programmes with mortality expertise is key to achieving sustainable health improvements. Whether your focus is wearables, metabolic health, digital biomarkers, or other forms of digital data, Swiss Re can help guide your digital health journey.