Fitness trackers might be sophisticated enough to predict when a person is at risk for cardiovascular diseases such as obesity and diabetes, according to a recent study published in the medical journal PLOS Biology.
After outfitting 233 people with low-cost consumer-grade wearables and comparing their results alongside a host of other clinical tests conducted with medical-grade equipment, researchers from Singapore found that the activity data from fitness trackers might be able to unlock more personalized healthcare and aid biomedical research.
In the study, researchers from the SingHealth Duke-NUS Institution of Precision Medicine in Singapore and the National Heart Centre Singapore profiled volunteers with over-the-counter wearables alongside heart rate monitoring, lifestyle questionnaires, cardiac imaging, serum lipidomics (profiling of fats in the blood), and other clinical tests.
They found that activity data from wearables could predict circulating levels of a class of lipids known as ceramides, which have been associated with obesity, diabetes and heart disease. The activity data could be used to identify people who exercise regularly and are at increased risk of having enlarged hearts, a condition known as “Athlete’s heart” that has been thought only to affect competitive athletes.
“An enlarged left ventricle could be caused by heart disease or harmless adaptation to sustained exercise, and these two conditions share overlapping features,” Stuart Cook, deputy director of SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute of Precision Medicine, said in a statement. “Activity data from wearables may help us identify individuals more likely to have this condition due to exercise, and are therefore at risk of misdiagnosis in the clinic.”
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The study comes as wearables companies, notably Apple and Fitbit, dedicate resources to studying how their devices might be able to assist healthcare and expand beyond traditional step and calorie counting.
In November, Fitbit joined an expansive Scripps Research Institute federal research study that’s designed to uncover the health habits of American citizens. At the time, Fitbit Health Solutions General Manager Adam Pellegrini said the data collected would help the company explore how health indicators such as physical activity, heart rate and sleep patterns relate to critical health outcomes.
Fitbit has been working to solidify itself as a digital health and medical device brand. Along those lines, the company in October announced a partnership with One Drop to integrate its devices with a diabetes management platform.