How good is the Apple Watch at predicting stress levels? ‘Promising’, says study

The Apple Watch is quite accurate at predicting stress levels, powered by multiple data points via its sensors, as well as good algorithms that make use of them.

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The Apple Watch series' ECG monitoring features help the wearables accurately predict stress. (Image Source: Apple)

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The Apple Watch series is considered as one of the best smartwatches ever made and dominates the watch market overall as well. While a large part of this is owing to Apple’s watchOS software, the Apple’s watches are also some of the most accurate when it comes to measuring health data via its built-in sensors. Now a new study suggests that the Apple Watch is also accurate when it comes to measuring stress levels.

The study, conducted by the University of Waterloo, Canada, first spotted by MyHealthyApple, suggests that there was a close association between the ECG (electrocardiogram) data of the participants and the corresponding stress levels.

Stress models powered by algorithms in the report, suggest the wearables have a “high level of precision” but lower recall, adding that the Apple Watch has “promising” potential for predicting stress levels accurately.

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The Apple Watch also benefits from additional data like sleep and activity information, feeding more data into the stress models to determine more accurate information. This of course, is just another helpful way the Apple Watch can help with users’ health. The wearable is also responsible for saving the lives of many users over the years due to helpful features that are automatically triggered during emergencies.

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Researchers also suggested that the Apple Watch could be used in helping individuals with mental health by encouraging healthy activities like breathing exercises. Note that ECG support is only available on the Apple Watch Series 4 and above.