Ap­ple de­vices, in tan­dem with dig­i­tal apps, could de­tect ear­ly signs of Alzheimer's, de­men­tia: study

Ap­ple has long sunk its talons in­to the health care in­dus­try, hav­ing forged re­la­tion­ships with acad­e­mia, drug/de­vice mak­ers and in­sur­ers. On Thurs­day, an ear­ly study sug­gest­ed that a range of Ap­ple de­vices in com­bi­na­tion with dig­i­tal ap­pli­ca­tions could dis­tin­guish peo­ple with mild cog­ni­tive im­pair­ment (MCI), mild Alzheimer’s dis­ease, de­men­tia and those with­out symp­toms.

The 12-week study eval­u­at­ed 113 par­tic­i­pants, aged 60 to 75, in re­al-world set­tings to de­ter­mine whether Ap­ple de­vices (iPhone, Ap­ple Watch, iPad and the Bed­dit sleep mon­i­tor) in com­bi­na­tion with apps, were able to iden­ti­fy al­most im­per­cep­ti­ble cog­ni­tive and be­hav­ioral dif­fer­ences among the study par­tic­i­pants with and with­out mild cog­ni­tive im­pair­ment.

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