Owning a smartwatch could help adults receive an early Parkinson’s diagnosis

A new study from Cardiff University has outlined that adults who have a smartwatch could detect Parkinson’s disease seven years before symptoms started to appear. 

Owning a smartwatch comes with a vast amount of health benefits. From tracking your daily steps to measuring your heart rate, a new study, led by scientists at the UK Dementia Research Institute and Neuroscience and Mental Health Innovation Institute (NMHII) at Cardiff University, has revealed that the devices can now detect Parkinson’s symptoms seven years early.

The study, which published its findings yesterday in Nature Medicine, used artificial intelligence (AI), to analyse the speed of participants’ movements over a seven-day period and predicted who would later go on to develop the disease.

Experts collected data from 103,712 people who wore a medical-grade smart watch for a week during 2013 and 2016. Whilst wearing the watches, the results, which were analysed after the devices had measured the average speed of each person, were compared to a group of people who had already received an official Parkinson’s diagnosis.

Parkinson’s disease is caused by a loss of nerve cells in the part of the brain called the substantia nigra. Nerve cells in this part of the brain are responsible for producing a chemical called dopamine. 

Dr Cynthia Sandor, emerging leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute at Cardiff University, said: ‘With these results we could develop a valuable screening tool to aid in the early detection of Parkinson’s.

‘This has implications both for research, in improving recruitment into clinical trials; and in clinical practice, in allowing patients to access treatments at an earlier stage, in future when such treatments become available.’

In addition to the smart technology helping to make advancements with Parkinson’s research, the news follows announcements which came at the end of last year when new research discovered a new drug that can help treat Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr Kathryn Peall, clinical senior lecturer in the NMHII at Cardiff University, has stated that since early diagnosis is currently very difficult, this promising new technology could allow patients critical access to treatment before they experience extensive brain damage.

Additionally, by the time symptoms present, more than half of the cells in the substantia nigra – the area of the brain that houses dopaminergic neurons – will already have died.  

‘For most people with Parkinson’s disease, by the time they start to experience symptoms, many of the affected brain cells have already been lost,’ Dr Peall said. ‘Though our findings here are not intended to replace existing methods of diagnosis, smart watch data could provide a useful screening tool to aid in the early detection of the disease.’

Dr Peall added: ‘This means that as new treatments hopefully begin to emerge, people will be able to access them before the disease causes extensive damage to the brain.’

Image: Luke Chesser