Cell phones could be used to measure risk of death, research says

A study of nearly 100,000 adults conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in the United States showed that: data collected via smartphone with a short walk They can assess their risk of dying in later years – such as a trip to the bakery.

Studies with large populations show that density is directly linked to survival timethat is, people who engage in moderate to vigorous activities have a lower risk of dying than those with sedentary lifestyles.

The biggest problem with these studies so far is that, although they are representative, they rely on data provided by personal reports or data measured by motion sensors embedded in wearables such as fitness watches. Like this, limited to populations recruited for a specific purposeand not those present in the daily lives of communities.

Creating a simple and reliable estimator

For population measurement to be available in real time in the world’s health systems, ideally, the measurement devices will already be widely deployed and accepted by the public. But while about 97% of the American population owns a cell phone, There’s no way to guarantee that these people are always browsing around with their devices.

In the search for an alternative estimator that is effectively measured on mainstream smartphones, the authors analyzed data from 100,655 participants Taken from the UK Biobank national survey, which monitors the health of middle-aged and older adults in the UK. For a week, participants wore motion sensors on their wrists. Within the next five years, 2% of these people died.

Using a machine learning model, the researchers processed motion and death sensor data in about one-tenth of the participants. The result was an algorithm that could. Assess five-year risk of death using six-minute walking acceleration.

ARTICLE – PLoS Digital Health – DOI: 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000045.