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Parkinson’s disease can be diagnosed 7 years in advance thanks to smart watches.
A study conducted in England showed that data from smartwatches used by participants can help diagnose Parkinson’s disease up to 7 years ago.
According to Sky News, Researchers from the UK Dementia Research Institute at Cardiff University have determined that smart watches can play an important role in the early diagnosis of Parkinson’s.
In the research, which used the biomedical database called “Biobank”, which contains the health data of about half a million people in the UK, the data was analyzed with artificial intelligence.
In the study, the movement speed of 103 thousand 712 people who wore smart watches for a week during the 2013-2016 period was followed.
The data obtained from the smart watches of the participants who were diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the 7 years following the said period were compared with those previously diagnosed with the same disease.
Accordingly, it was determined that the movements of the participants with Parkinson’s disease and those diagnosed with this disease within 7 years were slower than the healthy individuals.
In the following years, the data of those diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease were different from those of healthy people, revealing that the symptoms of the disease could be diagnosed up to 7 years earlier.
MOTION TRACKER AND CLEVER WATCHES CAN BE USED FOR MEDICAL OBSERVATION
Lead researcher at Cardiff University, Dr. Cynthia Sandor, in her statement, noted that thanks to the one-week data obtained from the participants, long-term predictions can be made about the health status of people.
Stating that they can develop a reliable and affordable method for early diagnosis of Parkinson’s thanks to the findings, Sandor emphasized that motion tracking devices and smart watches can be used for medical observation.
One of the researchers, Dr. Kathryn Peall stated that data pointing to Parkinson’s disease can be distinguished from data on factors affecting movement speed, such as other neurodegenerative diseases and advanced age.
Peall underlined that the research gives hope for the development of new therapies that will slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease and the use of artificial intelligence in diagnosis.
Parkinson’s, one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases worldwide after Alzheimer’s, affects the lives of nearly 10 million people.
The research was published in the journal “Nature Medicine.”
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