Your smartwatch could detect COVID before you show any symptoms (and before a test can pick it up)

Anula Wiwatowska - Offsite Editorial Lead

Last updated 08 July 2021

presymptomatic detection of covid-19 with smartwatches

According to multiple US studies, your smartwatch may be able to assist in diagnosing COVID-19 before you start showing symptoms.

Early detection is a huge factor in stopping the spread of coronavirus, and this research shows that wearable tech has the potential to detect the illness before a swab would test positive.

One study published in October 2020 used self-reporting through an app, along with fitness tracker data to conclude that monitoring smartwatch metrics can significantly improve the distinction between symptomatic individuals who eventually are diagnosed with COVID, and symptomatic individuals who are not.

Another, which we will concentrate on below used basic smartwatch functions to track pre-symptomatic changes in participants who contracted COVID-19 during the study.

In the simplest terms, the study noted that before, during and after the onset of symptoms of COVID-19, your physiological norms will shift, and the data from your smartwatch is likely to reflect that.

The study focused on just three main statistics: heart rate, steps, and sleep duration, all which are commonplace tracking features amongst the majority of smartwatches. For the purposes of this study however, the data concentrated on Fitbit wearers as they were the most common wearable in participants.

Participants of the study saw alterations in step count, length of sleep, and resting heartrate or heart-rate-to-steps-ratio (HRTSR) in the lead up to being diagnosed with the virus.

While its not exactly rocket science to connect sickness to lethargy, every participant who contracted COVID-19 during the study saw an elevated resting heart rate, or a shift in HRTSRprior to symptom onset.

For the most part these changes occurred two to three days before symptoms began, but in some cases the research detected a significant shift up to 14 days beforehand.

Especially in the case of COVID-19 that has a long incubation period, early intervention and isolation could be monumental in minimising the spread.

Closing your rings is a great feeling, but not feeling up to closing them, coupled with an uncharacteristic spike in resting heart rate could be an indicator that something isn’t right.

Of course this doesn’t mean that a jump in heart rate, and a sleep-in is necessarily cause for concern. Even the study itself noted similar routine changes during the holiday season when participants were eating, drinking, and being merry.

Researchers also excluded results from watches that needed daily charging, and from sporadic smartwatch wearers noting that without solid baseline figures, variations to data couldn’t possibly be accurate enough to show the discrepancies.

Basically, in order to accurately predict if you’re housing this virus you’ll need to be a consistent watch wearer day and night for at least 28 days prior to clocking any changes.

Although these studies - and many more like them - focused purely on COVID-19, wearables have previously been shown to be effective in detecting other viral respiratory infections, and even Lyme disease.

Anula Wiwatowska

Offsite Editorial Lead | Instagram

Anula is the Off-Site Editorial Lead for WhistleOut Australia, and an award winning tech journalist. She has been writing about the Australian telco industry, and consumer technology for over five years, and has been known to tell her Uber driver which phone they should upgrade to next.

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