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Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

reuters.com

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Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#121

Post by mehrdadn »

crdb wrote: post #120
mehrdadn wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish there was a heartbeat-measuring watch with the battery life of a dumb watch. My watch goes like 5 years (I've lost count honestly) on its original battery. I'd love to have something watching out for my health but I just can't see myself moving to a smartwatch that needs recharging every 18 hours when I don't even need the smartness crap...

My Amazfit Bip ($99) is supposed to have 45 days and lasts about 30 days on minute heart rate monitoring intervals (based on a month and a half of trying it). I wanted something a bit smaller, to fit under the shirt cuff, so got the Mi Band 3 ($50) which lasts about 10 days (probably 20 days if you don't allow it to display notifications and set a higher HR interval). The Mi app is pretty bad, which forces you to buy…

Huh, interesting, thanks for the pointers! 45 days might be bearable.

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#122

Post by fouc »

thisacctforreal wrote: post #117
mehrdadn wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish there was a heartbeat-measuring watch with the battery life of a dumb watch. My watch goes like 5 years (I've lost count honestly) on its original battery. I'd love to have something watching out for my health but I just can't see myself moving to a smartwatch that needs recharging every 18 hours when I don't even need the smartness crap...

A fitbit might be a good match, my girlfriend's Alta HR lasts a handful of days between charges. I bought it for her primarily for the hypnograms.

My fibit charge 3 goes more than week before needing a charge.

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#123

Post by idDriven »

Public Service Announcement: You can just check your pulse manually for free. AFIB will be irregularly irregular.

As as comparing cancer to AFIB it's definitely not accurate to compare the two directly. A very common cause of AFIB in people younger than 60 for example is 'holiday heart' short-term AFIB related to binge drinking, it is generally self-resolving and transitory, and generally does not require treatment especially if asymptomatic. Cancer to my knowledge generally does not self-resolve.

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#124

Post by rootusrootus »

mehrdadn wrote: post #116
paxswill wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Purely anecdotal, but my Series 3 goes about two days on a full charge. I can usually get away with just charging it in the morning while I shower and get ready, and otherwise just wearing all the time. Workouts deplete the battery more, mostly because I’m usually using the GPS in addition to the more frequent heart rate monitoring.

I feel like if I got a watch that did this I'd want it to last at least 3 months on a charge, so I could stop having to remember to charge it... otherwise it's like having a second phone on my hand that I don't need.

Everyone has their own threshold, and I respect that, but personally I haven't found it too onerous. I don't wear watches to bed, so I 3D printed a base for the watch charger (it's a magnetically attached inductive charger, no plug) and I just take the watch off my wrist and set it on the charger as I go to bed. Faster than when I had a dumb watch, because I still had to set it down the same way, and the Apple Watch unlatches with a single pull.

But ... like I said, everyone has their own needs. And if you don't want all the smart crap, it's a pretty expensive heartbeat monitor.

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#125

Post by rootusrootus »

threeseed wrote: post #69
fargo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry for the stupid question, what do you mean by people losing weight?

Apple added gamification elements to the Apple Watch. “Closing the rings” which means completing 100% of the move, stand and exercise targets adds a competitive element to fitness which has worked well for many users.

I haven't yet found the rings and other features to be nearly as motivating as when all of my friends had Fitbits and we were connected through their service. That was one thing that kept me from switching faster, I didn't want to give up the Fitbit social network.

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#126

Post by rootusrootus »

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #94
tedivm wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not an accurate interpretation. Atrial fibrillation episodes are not constant- they come and go, and different people will have them at different frequencies. It's possible that people had an episode while wearing the watch but haven't had any episodes while wearing the ECG. ECGs are also less comfortable to wear than watches, so it's possible the people they sent them to didn't wear them as often (it's even p…

All good arguments for the watch it seems. I was a little eye roll at the ECG feature Apple added, but I’m happy to be proven wrong.

The ECG really has it's moments. I have arrhythmia (not Afib) and it's handy to be able to correlate what I'm feeling with actual evidence. And I can print it out and take with me at my next appt to discuss with the doc.

But if you have a perfectly boring, normal heart, I can see not using it very often. At least it's unobtrusive if you aren't interested in it.

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#127

Post by rootusrootus »

tedivm wrote: post #40
Zanni wrote: post #19

If I'm reading this right, the Apple Watch was actually more accurate in detecting arterial fibrilation episodes than the ECG patch they used for initial confirmation. The Apple Watch identified 2,000 people. The patch confirmed 33% of those, but then another 51% were confirmed by some undisclosed method.

That's not an accurate interpretation. Atrial fibrillation episodes are not constant- they come and go, and different people will have them at different frequencies. It's possible that people had an episode while wearing the watch but haven't had any episodes while wearing the ECG. ECGs are also less comfortable to wear than watches, so it's possible the people they sent them to didn't wear them as often (it's even p…

They mention ECG patch, so it might not have been too bad. Those are good for longer studies than a typical Holter monitor, and they are waterproof so you can shower with them. I agree that a real Holter monitor is a bit of a pain in the ass and probably would affect compliance rate.

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#128

Post by rootusrootus »

jacksproit wrote: post #119
GuiA wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The future is your insurance company making you wear a smart watch 24/7 if you don’t want to pay a huge premium. I predict it’s going to be a huge quagmire over the next decade or so.

It'll probably be more like auto insurance companies where they offer a voluntary tracking program and if you're better than average you get a discount

We're already headed in that direction, for sure. The company I currently work for doesn't run a program through the insurance company directly, but they do make the company contribution to your HSA dependent on you participating in their wellness program. Bonus points if you have a smartwatch that can feed data back. Supposedly none of that info gets back to the company or insurance, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#129

Post by mr_toad »

zzzeek wrote: post #101

this is kind of a trivial question but is the apple watch HR monitor known to be better than that of FitBit? I got a Charge 3 for Christmas and I barely even wear it anymore, as it would say things like "95 bpm" when I'm working out and I'm clearly at around 135 bpm. you can say things like "oh wear it higher / lower / tighter" whatever but if it's that prone to being 40 bpm off the mark, what use is it.

I haven’t had this experience. I can push my heart rate up to about 165 running uphill. Considering my age, that’s pretty close to what my maximum HR should be. Conversely, I can get it down to about 45 when sitting very still. Much lower and I’d be unconscious.

It’s possible yours was just faulty. Fitbit aren’t known for their quality control.

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#130

Post by mehrdadn »

rootusrootus wrote: post #124
mehrdadn wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like if I got a watch that did this I'd want it to last at least 3 months on a charge, so I could stop having to remember to charge it... otherwise it's like having a second phone on my hand that I don't need.

Everyone has their own threshold, and I respect that, but personally I haven't found it too onerous. I don't wear watches to bed, so I 3D printed a base for the watch charger (it's a magnetically attached inductive charger, no plug) and I just take the watch off my wrist and set it on the charger as I go to bed. Faster than when I had a dumb watch, because I still had to set it down the same way, and the Apple Watch…

It's not really the issue of it being 'onerous' (although it is), but that for me, in a watch, reliability is king... heck, if it wasn't, I'd just be using my phone, like many people already do (and which I've also been tempted to do). But there are times when I forget to, say, charge my phone. [1] It's not often, but stuff goes wrong once in a while. Now if I'm short on time the last thing I need is to have to discover I'm out of battery and waste time having to fiddle with a battery pack or something. None of this is an issue when you have a normal dumb watch that lasts a few years. You always have a way to tell what time it is and to set yourself alarms so you can meet your commitments no matter what goes wrong.

[1] Or it crashes, or randomly starts draining its battery insanely faster because Google decided to force feed it an update or due to other reasons I can't fathom... but that's another story.

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