Study finds consumer devices can be used to assess brain health

(Press-News.org) (Boston) — Technology is changing how physicians think about assessing patients and, in turn, how patients expect to be able to measure their own health. Apps designed for smartphones and wearable devices can provide unique insights into users’ brain health.  

It is estimated that 55 million individuals worldwide suffer from some form of dementia. Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias being the leading causes, with numbers expected to triple by 2050. Early education and detection of cognitive changes empower individuals to enact lifestyle modifications and initiate pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic approaches to slow or prevent decline. In fact, up to 45% of global dementia cases could be prevented or delayed through targeted lifestyle changes and risk factor management, according to the 2024 Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention and care. This highlights how individuals can be empowered to protect and improve their brain health through proactive measures.

A new study in the journal Nature Medicine has found widely used consumer grade digital devices, such as the iPhone and Apple Watch, can be effective in assessing an individual's cognitive health without requiring in-person visits or supervision. This is the largest cognition study of its kind to demonstrate that self-administered cognitive assessments can be leveraged to accurately assess cognitive health over time.

 “In the long term, we may be able to track digital health metrics and identify those reflecting cognitive changes that are on a trajectory of decline and warrant follow-up with a medical professional to determine if an early intervention treatment plan is needed to either slow or prevent progression,” says coauthor Rhoda Au, PhD, professor of anatomy & neurobiology at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, and one of the researchers on the study.     

The study enrolled more than 23,000 adults represented from across the U.S. who used an iPhone. Enrollment was broad and included individuals who consented to sharing their data, from 21-86 years of age and spanned cognitively healthy to diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment.

Of the participants enrolled, over 90% were able to adhere to the study protocol for at least one year, which included using an iPhone and wearing an Apple Watch on a daily basis, as well as taking cognitive assessments on their own and completing questionnaires on a monthly and quarterly basis.

The researchers also found that self-administered digital cognitive assessments were reliable and clinically valid across the broad populations enrolled. The ability to accurately measure cognitive health remotely could be the first step in providing individuals with the information they need to take action on their brain health.

Other contributors on this study included researchers from the Intuition Study Scientific Committee; Mass General Brigham; Harvard Medical School; Banner Alzheimer’s Institute; University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing; The Balm in Gilead, Inc.; Stanford School of Medicine; Penn State University, Indivi AG (Basel, Switzerland) and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. The study was sponsored by Biogen in collaboration with Apple.

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