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A study in the United States found that smartwatches and other wearable fitness devices that continuously measure the human body’s vital signs can detect changes in the body 9 days before symptoms of the coronavirus appear.
Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in the United States analyzed data from 32 people infected with Covid-19, identified in a group of nearly 5,300 participants.
Research found that 26 of them (81%) exhibited changes in their heart rate, number of daily steps, and time asleep.
The study, published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, found that for 22 cases, they were able to detect changes before or at the onset of symptoms, with 4 cases detected at least 9 days earlier.
The results suggest that activity tracking and health monitoring through smartwatches and similar devices can be used for large-scale, real-time detection of respiratory infections.
Early detection of infectious disease is important in mitigating the spread of the disease by increasing self-isolation and early treatment, the researchers said.
Currently, most diagnostic methods involve sampling nasal fluids, saliva, or blood, followed by nucleic acid-based tests for active infections or blood-based serological detection for past infections. .
“Although very sensitive, nucleic acid-based diagnostics may require samples taken several days after exposure for an unambiguous positive detection,” said the study authors.
“Moreover, they cannot be implemented consistently at low cost and are limited by emerging shortages of key reagents,” they said.
The researchers noted that smartwatches and other wearable devices are already used by tens of millions of people around the world and measure many physiological parameters, such as heart rate, skin temperature, and sleep.
They studied the use of wearable devices for the early detection of Covid-19 retrospectively, and also presented an approach to use the physiological parameters detected by wearable devices for real-time health monitoring and surveillance.
“Using heart rate and step data from a large cohort of 5,262 people, we show that heart rate signals from fitness trackers can be used to retrospectively detect Covid-19 infection long before onset. symptoms, ”the authors said.
“In addition, we have developed an online detection algorithm to identify early stages of infection through real-time heart rate monitoring,” they said.
(With PTI inputs)
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