Wearables like the Apple Watch or Oura Ring could monitor a range of “digital biomarkers” that could make Parkinson’s disease treatment more effective, a study found.
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A new study published in npj Digital Medicine carried out a meta-analysis of various studies related to remote Parkinson’s monitoring and wearables. The team even claims that digital biomarkers to remotely monitor Parkinson’s symptoms could “revolutionize outcome assessments.”
Here’s how.
Digital biomarkers for Parkinson’s monitoring
Currently, biomarkers are showing great promise for monitoring the motor-related symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. For example, one study by the American Association for the Advancement of Science indicated that the Apple Watch was incredibly useful for remotely monitoring resting tremors or dyskinesia in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients.
However, the researchers behind the meta-analysis note that remotely monitoring the non-motor symptoms of PD “lags behind.”
“Much less attention has been paid to non-motor symptoms, in both research and clinical practice,” the team notes. “Yet, non-motor symptoms have a substantial negative impact on quality of life in affected individuals.”
Non-motor symptoms of PD can range widely, and may include the following:
- Sleep disturbance
- REM sleep behavior disorder
- Excessive daytime sleepiness
- Fatigue
- Pain
- Reduced heart rate variability
- Bladder dysfunction
- Low skin impedence
- Constipation
This, of course, is where wearables like the Apple Watch or Oura Ring could come in.
Accuracy of remote non-motor symptom monitoring
The team examined hundreds of studies involving PD treatment, and then analyzed which specific studies showed promising results for wearables. The results were hefty.
For example, the team found that sleep trackers could accurately detect disturbances during sleep in PD patients. Other studies focused on everything from heart rate variability to skin temperature. The team found promising results in those, too.
Incredibly, one large observational study also suggested that tracking excessive daytime sleepiness — perhaps through wearable nap tracking features — could predict the onset of PD at least two years prior to a diagnosis.
“We found that various wearables show high promise for measuring autonomic function, constipation and sleep characteristics, including REM sleep behavior disorder,” the team wrote.
PD is also associated with neuropsychiatric symptoms, and the team admits that wearables have a harder time tracking these bio-markers. However, they do point out that neuropsychiatric tracking in wearable devices is. showing “increasing accuracy in non-PD populations,” which could be promising for PD treatment.
How wearables could help Parkinson’s treatment
Currently, the team says that the wearables that show the most promise in identifying PD biomarkers include sleep and heart rate variability. That makes sense, given the fact that many commercially available wearables aim to track activity, heart rate, and sleep in various ways.
As far as what this means for the treatment of PD, there are several opportunities. For one, the team notes that these types of digital biomarkers have “relatively high predictive value,” meaning that they could potentially catch the onset of PD earlier. This is critical, since Parkinson’s disease is more treatable when it’s caught early.
The power in being able to remotely and passively monitor symptoms using wearables is turning out to be a game-changer for modern medicine. While your Apple Watch is certainly no replacement for a doctor, the date it produces could, in theory, help give your doctor more data to work with.
