New Research Says Data From Smartphone Fitness Trackers Can Predict Death Risk

We’ve heard about smartphone technology being able to check your heart rate and even help in diagnosing medical conditions that you never knew about. But what if we told you that there’s a technology out there in the world that’s designed to predict your risk of death?

As bizarre as that may sound to you right now, it’s the truth. Say hello to data from fitness trackers inside smartphones that are opening the door to a new realm of health and medicine.

A recently conducted research shows scientists present at the University of Illinois have deciphered some interesting findings. And these are based on the likes of 100,000 participants located in the United Kingdom.

All those who participated wore activity monitors present on their wrists that entailed motion sensors. They were asked to do the same for one week and that’s when they extracted information from a few short bursts of activity, like a walking test for example.

This team was seen validating the results by taking into consideration only a few steady minutes that combined other factors like demographics. This was equal to the likes of calculating gait speed that was not directly dependent on factors like age or gender.

And that’s when the authors were able to conclude that death was the final outcome when 100,000 participants were considered that wore the sensor devices.

The sort of accuracy achieved was quite like the activity monitoring of walking sessions that occur in your daily life. They utilize specific motions that help to forecast mortality risk.

The authors feel this is a very feasible method for screening diseases on a national level and making people understand what sorts of health risks they’re prone to. Moreover, they claim that such works being implemented could really benefit from smart devices.

After collecting data of this sort, health risks become more prominent and it really shows large-scale data obtained from populations at a glance without much intrusion from people’s lives.

For now, the only devices in use are smartphones that have accelerometers in them. Their use is limited when it's carried for normal activities. So as the authors claim, it’s possible to measure the walking intensity out there but being able to measure the total activity in this time frame using wearable devices isn’t possible.

The accuracy that the authors got with their devices was similar to the total activity measured and that seen during gait speed walks. So yes, more research is required but these findings are a great screening tool.