The Stanford University recently published a study on how the Apple Watch could measure a person’s ‘frailty’.
The institute, in partnership with Apple suggested that ‘frailty’ may be measured by having the subject undergo a 6MWT, or 6 minute walking test, which is a standard for evaluating exercise capacity and functional mobility. The higher the score, the more healthy the subject’s neuromuscular, circulatory, respiratory and cardiac functions.
The study worked with more than a hundred Veterans Affairs individuals with cardiovascular conditions. The Apple Watch 3 was used to measure the vitals as they underwent the 6 minute walking test, then the same procedure was done with standard in-clinic equipment.
It was discovered that the Apple Watch was fairly accurate in terms of measuring within a clinical setting (up to 85% specificity and 90% sensitivity), and in an unsupervised setting (up to 60% specificity and 83% sensitivity). An app called ‘VascTrac’ was used to collect the 6MWT data.
