A recently published research reveals wearable fitness trackers may help in predicting influenza outbreaks in real-time.
The study published on The Lancet Digital Health journal says wearable devices which collect data such as heart rates improve surveillance of infectious diseases. Resting heart rate tends to spike during infectious episodes and this is captured by wearable devices such as fitness trackers and smartwatches.
“Responding more quickly to influenza outbreaks can prevent further spread and infection,” says study author Dr. Jennifer Radin of Scripps Research Translational Institute. “We were curious to see if sensor data could improve real-time surveillance at the state level.”
“In the future as these devices improve, and with access to 24/7 real-time data, it may be possible to identify rate of influenza on a daily instead of weekly basis,” she adds.
The researchers reviewed de-identified data from 200,000 users who wore a Fitbit wearable device that tracks users’ activity, heart rate, and sleep for at least 60 days during the study time from March 2016 to March 2018.
Of the 200,000, 47,248 users from California, Texas, New York, Illinois, and Pennsylvania wore a Fitbit device consistently during the study period, resulting in a total of 13,342,651 daily measurements evaluated. The average user was 43 years old and 60 percent were female.
Users’ average resting heart rate and sleep duration were calculated, as well as deviations to this to help identify when these measures were outside of an individual’s typical range.
During each week, a user was identified as abnormal if their weekly average resting heart rate was above their overall average (by more than a half or a full standard deviation) and their weekly average sleep was not below their overall average (by more than half a standard deviation).
The data were compared to weekly estimates for influenza-like illness rates reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
By incorporating data from Fitbit trackers, influenza predictions at the state level were improved. In all five states there was an improvement in real-time surveillance, and the closest alignment with CDC data was found when abnormal resting heart rate was defined as half a standard deviation above normal and sleep more than half a standard deviation below.
“Clinical researchers are using wearables to pioneer new ways around how we understand, prevent and treat disease, and identify better approaches to keep people healthy and deliver more meaningful health outcomes. We’re excited by the potential wearables can play in helping to better predict the flu and the positive impact on both those with the flu and the healthcare system,” Fitbit said in a statement to CNN.