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.