According to a recent survey conducted by Parks Associates in March, about 5 percent of households with broadband internet have at least one digital fitness device -- like a Fitbit, Jawbone UP, or BodyMedia FIT Armband. The survey, called Digitally Fit: Healthy Living and Connected Devices, polled about 10,000 broadband-enabled households.

The survey found that memory improvement mobile apps or online services were the most widely adopted type of app or service among those surveyed, followed by weight loss, diet and nutrition, and exercise apps or online services.

A Parks report from last year, called Health Entertainment 2012, found that 29 percent of consumers with health problems would try out an easy-t0-use device to track their health conditions and 27 percent said they were interested in a personalized plan to help guide them through their care regimen. That same report found that about a third of people who said they used fitness apps (or said they'd potentially like to use them) considered the integration of fitness data with nutritional data as a "must have" feature of an app.

Parks predicts that more than 32 million US consumers will actively track their health and fitness online or via mobile devices by 2016, up from about 15 million in 2011. Online and mobile wellness service adoption will also increase from 14 million users in 2011 to 29 million by 2016, according to Parks. Sales of fitness tracking devices -- both stationary and wearable -- will ramp from $337 million in 2011 to more than $2.4 billion by 2016. The firm estimates that unit sales of wearable fitness tracking devices will almost hit 14 million by 2016, up from just 1.5 million sales in 2011.

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