Glucose Monitoring Technology and the Hidden Risks of Health Optimization

• In Event: Sociology of the Body and Embodiment Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3: Bodies & Health

Abstract

Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology has been shown to reduce the health risks associated with diabetes. CGMs facilitate intensive data collection, allowing users to closely monitor their glucose levels and potentially achieve better control over their glucose. Although such technology-enabled optimization practices are designed for risk reduction, this paper argues that such practices may also introduce harms to health. Using data from in-depth interviews with CGM users and diabetes care professionals, I show how more intensive data collection can impose harms on users by facilitating health optimization practices and increasingly aggressive disease management goals, especially in a cultural context that moralizes "good" disease self-management. This paper shows that health tracking technology is not a neutral tool that facilitates the pursuit of preexisting goals, but rather can be instrumental in shaping the goals and actions that are adopted by users. While such practices aim to improve health, they can also inadvertently lead to new health risks, highlighting the ways that technology may both enable and amplify demands for health optimization.

Author

• Megan Kelly, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor