New prolonged study finds Apple Watch helpful in detecting COVID-19 symptoms

Multiple medical studies have concluded that Apple Watch, FitBit, and other wearables can detect COVID-19 symptoms early, before the symptoms surface or the infected test’s positive. A new prolonged study reiterates that same conclusion that the resting heart rate (RHR) measured by smart wrist devices is linked to the detection and recovery of COVID-19.

Apple Watch features a Heart Rate app for users to check their heart rate. Users cal also set high heart rate and low rate ranges to receive notifications.

Your Apple Watch can notify you if your heart rate remains above a chosen threshold or below a chosen threshold after you’ve been inactive for at least 10 minutes. You can turn on heart rate notifications when you first open the Heart Rate app, or at any time later.

Study reveals resting heart rate measured by Apple Watch like wearables is associated with COVID-19 detection and recovery

The new study titled “Assessment of Prolonged Physiological and Behavioral Changes Associated With COVID-19 Infection”, published by JAMA Network Open, examined the role of wearables in tracking participants’ physiological and behavioral via their metrics apps for 6 months.

Previous studies have found that wearable data can improve real-time detection of viral illness or discrimination of individuals with COVID-19 vs other viral infections. Wearable devices provide a way to continuously track an individual’s physiological and behavioral metrics beginning when healthy (ie, before infection), during the course of infection, and recovery back to baseline. In this cohort study, we aimed to examine the duration and variation of recovery among COVID-19–positive vs COVID-19–negative participants.

DETECT (Digital Engagement and Tracking for Early Control and Treatment) is a remote, app-based, longitudinal research study enrolling adult participants from all over the US and collecting their wearable data to better understand individual changes associated with viral illness, including COVID-19.

The study concludes that;

“Our data suggest that early symptoms and larger initial RHR response to COVID-19 infection may be associated with the physiological length of recovery from this virus.”

Previously, Mount Sinai studied the Apple Watch heart rate feature measures changes in heart rate “which can signal that an individual has the coronavirus.” That encouraged Cupertino tech giant to launch an official investigation to check the effectiveness of the smartwatch in detecting COVID-19 symptoms.