New research by Cardiff University has found that smartwatches could help predict who is likely to develop Parkinson's disease, up to seven years before clinical diagnosis.
Published in the journal Nature Medicine, the team from the University's Neuroscience and Mental Health Innovation Institute (NMHII) and the UK Dementia Research Institute, found that wearable tech that tracks accelerometery – the acceleration of motion – could be vital in identifying individuals in the general population who are most likely to develop Parkinson's disease.
While Parkinson's is largely recognised for its motor symptoms, such as tremors and slowness of movement, non-motor changes in an earlier stage of the disease called the prodromal stage, can predate the onset of these symptoms by many years.
Dr Kathryn Peall, Clinical Senior Lecturer in the NMHII, said: "Parkinson's disease is a progressive movement disorder caused by the loss of brain cells that use dopamine. However, by the time of clinical diagnosis approximately 50-70% of these brain cells will have been lost. This makes early diagnosis of the disease difficult.
