The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
According to Karen Van Ooteghem, a researcher in kinesiology and health sciences at Waterloo, information from wearables could provide insight into patterns of health-related behaviour and disease symptoms as they occur over days and weeks.
“This may be important for monitoring disease progression and the impact of therapeutics, supplementary to assessments conducted in the clinic,” she said. “Within our research programme, we carry out work to validate novel outcomes derived from wearables for these purposes and develop avenues to relay this information to patients and clinicians.”
Van Ooteghem added it was important for researchers to understand feasibility in participants’ natural environments because behaviour in the lab or clinic may not reflect what occurs in day-to-day living.
The researchers recruited 39 participants with cerebrovascular or neurodegenerative diseases...