Older adults hooked on 'Wrist Doctor'... 9 in 10 say, "Outdoor activities have increased"

[Financial News]  The proportion of older adults among users of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's health-management platform Wrist Doctor 9988 has nearly tripled in three years. In particular, nine out of 10 citizens aged 60 and over who regularly use the service said their outdoor activities had increased after they began participating, indicating that Wrist Doctor 9988 is helping older adults make walking part of their daily routine. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said on the 28th that 95.2% of citizens aged 60 and over who actively use Wrist Doctor 9988 reported that their walking time had increased after joining the service. Some 89.9% said they engaged in more outdoor activities, while 87.5% said they had gained more energy and enjoyment in their daily lives.
Wrist Doctor 9988 is a health-management platform operated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government that awards points when users meet walking goals and complete health-related activities. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's 2025 Community Health Survey, Seoul's walking participation rate was 69.0%, the highest in the country. The Seoul Metropolitan Government explained that Wrist Doctor 9988 is helping residents turn walking into a daily habit.
Participation among older adults is also rising rapidly. The share of participants aged 60 and over climbed 22.0 percentage points, from 13.1% in June 2023 to 35.1% in June this year.
Older adults also recorded the highest rate of meeting their goals. As of June this year, 81.0% of users aged 60 and over achieved their daily step goal on at least 10 days in a month, the highest figure among all age groups. That was 24.5 percentage points higher than the rate for people in their 20s and 30s, which stood at 56.5%. The daily step goal is 8,000 steps for people in their 60s and younger, and 5,000 steps for those aged 70 and over.
A survey of active participants also identified changes in their health and daily lives. The shares of respondents who said their physical fitness and muscle strength had improved and that their interest in health management had increased were each 99.4%. Some 93.5% said the service had helped improve their sleep, while 90.5% said it had helped them manage their weight. Another 37.5% said they did not engage in any separate exercise besides walking.
Walking also led to more interaction with other people. Some 62.5% of respondents said that, after joining Wrist Doctor 9988, they walked with others more often or had more conversations about walking.
The points system also received high marks. Some 97.6% of respondents said the points policy helped them manage their health. All respondents, or 100%, said they were willing to recommend Wrist Doctor 9988 to others.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to expand Wrist Doctor 9988 from a walking-focused service into a personalized health-management platform covering diet, metabolic syndrome and mental well-being. It will enhance the platform by using health examination data and other information to provide individual health scores, health ages and risk assessments for chronic and serious diseases, along with services tailored to each user's health status.
Cho Young-chang, director of the Citizen Health Bureau at the Seoul Metropolitan Government, said, "Older adults showed a clear tendency to continue walking regularly and turn it into part of their daily health management once they participated in Wrist Doctor 9988. We will continue developing it into a preventive health-management platform that anyone can easily use."

[email protected] Seong Cho-rong Reporter