Activity trackers: allies in the fight against multiple sclerosis

Fitness tools help with multiple sclerosis

Swiss researchers show the usefulness of connected watches in understanding multiple sclerosis. The goal is to make it easier to manage symptoms and treat the disease.

Published today at 08:00

An application for tracking physical activity on a smartphone.

KEYSTONE/Gaetan Balli

Data from our smartphones and activity-tracking watches can help patients suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS). Studying from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) demonstrated that symptom monitoring can be simplified thanks to the data collected by these devices. The condition does develop over time.

Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. The latter is autoimmune and has various symptoms such as fatigue, blurred vision or even loss of muscle coordination. Diagnosing it can be difficult because signs of the disease may persist for short or long periods of time and are not stable over time. They can happen and then stop without knowing why.

In accordance with Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Society, about 18,000 people live with this disease in our country. The first symptoms usually appear between the ages of 20 and 40, but in 3–10% of cases they appear in childhood. MS affects more women than men, affecting twice as many people. There is currently no treatment that can cure this disease, but medications can help slow its progression.

Data that may be incomplete

To track this development, doctors regularly ask patients to describe their symptoms. Which can be difficult, as a press release announcing the study states: “The patient is faced with the delicate task of providing information about the state of their health and what they have been able to do in recent weeks or even recent months. from his memory.” This can lead to poor treatment of the disease as data may be incomplete or inaccurate.

The study shows that this is where data collected by fitness trackers and smartphones can be useful. The researchers fitted 55 people with multiple sclerosis and 24 control subjects with fitness trackers. Over the course of two weeks, this allowed data such as heart rate to be collected. An easy way to get information.

Towards earlier detection

According to Shkurta Gaši, researcher at the ETH Center for Artificial Intelligence and lead author of the study, the benefits are numerous: “These devices offer the possibility of continuous, real-time monitoring of patients during their daily activities. This may lead to earlier detection of disease progression and more timely intervention. Additionally, for example, healthcare providers can not only ask patients to perform tasks in the clinic, but also monitor patients’ behavior at home or during their daily activities.”

And patients will benefit too. Indeed, these devices may allow them to better understand their symptoms: “Patients, for their part, can use these devices to self-monitor their health parameters, such as changes in heart rate, physical activity and sleep patterns,” explains the researcher. .

An important step in patient monitoring

And the results allowed Shkurta Gashi and other researchers to identify important indicators: “The higher the severity of the disease and the level of fatigue of the participants, the lower their physical activity and heart rate variability. Compared to controls, patients with multiple sclerosis took fewer steps per day, had lower levels of physical activity overall, and recorded more regular intervals between heartbeats.

An important step in monitoring patients with this disease, the researcher says: “Changes in patients’ health status may also change their behavior and habits, such as physical activity and sleep patterns, which can be continuously recorded using activity trackers. This information can reveal disease status and progression and can ultimately be used to improve care and develop more effective treatments for multiple sclerosis.”

According to Shkurta Gaši, “this wealth of data can lead to better therapeutic decisions and more effective treatment of the disease.”