The Apple Watch is probably the best smartwatch when it comes to health-centric features. Users have reported incidents where the wearable saved their lives or alerted them before the illness. The smartwatch comes equipped with a boatload of sensors that determine a user's health condition. According to a new study, the Apple Watch has the ability to accurately assess a person's Frailty.
The Apple Watch Can Accurately Assess Frailty in Patients According to the Latest Research
As mentioned earlier, the Apple Watch has the ability to determine "frailty", according to Standford University's recently published study (via MyHealthyApple). If you are unfamiliar, frailty can be measured using a six-minute walking test which evaluates a user's exercise capacity and functional mobility. The higher the result is, the healthier the patient's cardiac, respiratory, neuromuscular, and circulatory functions will be according to Apple.
The Apple Watch frailty study was funded by Apple and conducted by the Standford University. The study provided 110 Veteran Affairs patients with cardiovascular disease. The iPhone 7 was used with the Apple Watch Series 3 and the patients conducted the six-minute exercises at home on a regular basis. The results were then compared to the standard 6MWT in the clinic.
According to findings, the Apple Watch was able to accurately determine frailty with a 90 percent sensitivity and 85 percent specificity when supervised in a clinical setting. At home, the sensitivity was 83 percent and the specificity was 60 percent. What this means is that the Apple Watch can be used at home can act as an accurate determination of the in-clinic 6MWT results.
In this longitudinal observational study, passive activity data acquired by an iPhone and Apple Watch were an accurate predictor of in-clinic 6MWT performance. This finding suggests that frailty and functional capacity could be monitored and evaluated remotely in patients with cardiovascular disease, enabling safer and higher resolution monitoring of patients.
The study makes use of a custom app designed for the purpose called "VascTrac" that gathered the 6MWT data alongside the passively collected activity data on the Apple Watch. Apple has included a series of mobility-related health metrics in watchOS 7 which includes the 6MWT. This will act as a base for healthcare providers to offer an assessment of the functional capacity of cardiovascular disease patients through the Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch keeps on adding more features and major health-centric additions to the mix. While there are countless reasons to get one, health and fitness related features are one of the major ones. That's all there is to it, folks. Share your views regarding the study in the comments.
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