One of the main approaches of the Apple Watch, if not the main one by far, is that of a device that serves as a "guardian" of our health. In fact, it seems that this was the original idea of the company, a device capable of accurately measuring different aspects of our health and our physical activity that, halfway through its creation, was supplemented with notification functions and more.
Now, a study conducted by the Cleveland Clinic and published in JAMA Cardiology, confirms that Apple Watch is the most accurate health-tracking device of how many there are in the market of the same product category.
The Apple Watch, at the forefront of wearable devices in heart rate measurement
Since its presentation in September 2014 and subsequent launch in April 2015, the Cupertino company has focused much of its efforts on promoting the health capabilities of the Apple Watch, something that has been accentuated with the launch of the models. Series 2 of this year. And apparently, he has achieved his goal.
A recent study carried out by the Cleveland Clinic concludes that Apple Watch is the most accurate wearable device on the market as far as health monitoring is concerned.
Said study has taken as a reference 50 healthy people connected to an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG, for its acronym in English), as this is the device considered to be the most accurate to measure heart activity.
The heart rates of the fifty participants were taken based on three degrees or levels of activity: at rest, walking and running on one of these treadmills that we can see in any gym.
Furthermore, measurements were taken using different devices in order to compare the results obtained. These devices were, in addition to the Apple Watch, the Fitbit Charge HR quantizer bracelet, Mio Alpha, Basis Peak and also a device attached to each participant's chest with a strap.
The results
Among all these devices used in the study, the clear winner was precisely the strap attached to the chest, since its degree of success was 99 percent with respect to the results obtained by the electrocardiogram. This result was as expected, since both instruments take the data directly from the heart, so its precision will always be greater.
As for wearable devices, Apple Watch showed the highest level of accuracy, with a 90 percent success rate for EKG results.
The rest of the devices, all of them, placed your success rate below 80 percent, as pointed out in TIME magazine by Dr. Gordon Blackburn, one of the authors of this work and director of cardiac rehabilitation at the Cleveland Clinic .
It is noteworthy that, as the intensity of the participants' physical activity increased, all the devices used to record their heart rate had their ability to precision decrease. According to Dr. Gordon Blackburn, the reason for this is because wrist devices examine blood flow to determine heart rate. As the activity becomes more intense, there is "more bounce, so you may lose some of that contact."
Apple is silent, Fitbit responds
Although Apple has not yet issued any comment about this recent study, from the Cleveland Clinic, Fitbit has already ruled through a statement to its followers stating that its devices "are not intended to be medical devices." The company also takes advantage of to emphasize the comfort offered by its devices that, when worn on the wrist, are much more comfortable than chest straps. But Fitbit also contradicts the results of this work, noting that in its internal tests the accuracy rate of 94 percento.
Fitbit trackers are not intended to be medical devices. Unlike chest straps, the wrist-based trackers fit comfortably in everyday life, providing continuous heart rate over several days without recharging to give a much more informative picture of general health and wellness trends.
