The smartwatches seen on the wrists of roughly 1 in 5 Americans could be more than just a fun gimmick but a potentially useful research tool to track habitual physical activity levels.
In a new study, researchers found people who took more steps daily, as tracked by their watch, had lower blood pressure on average than those taking fewer steps.
The research is part of the Framingham Heart Study, a project focusing on factors affecting heart disease that has been ongoing for more than 70 years.
The study is one of the first to use commercially available wearable devices to track habitual physical activity in a large group of people in the context of daily life outside of a health care setting or research center.
The research was conducted by a team at the University of California, San Francisco.
Researchers analyzed data from 638 study participants who were asked to wear an Apple Watch daily and record their blood pressure at home weekly.
Over the course of the study, participants averaged about 7,500 steps per day.
Their average systolic blood pressure was 122 mm Hg and average diastolic blood pressure was 76 mm Hg, levels that are considered normal to slightly elevated.
Those with a higher daily step count had significantly lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
The team found participants’ systolic blood pressure was about 0.45 points lower for every 1,000 daily steps taken, meaning that a person taking 10,000 steps daily would have a systolic blood pressure 2.25 points lower than a person taking just 5,000 steps daily, on average.
Given that study participants had an average systolic blood pressure of 122 mm Hg, this amount could make the difference between blood pressure that is considered normal (less than 120 mm Hg) and elevated (120 mm Hg or higher).
The findings align with previous research suggesting that being more physically active can help lower blood pressure.
Nearly half of U.S. adults are estimated to have high blood pressure, and many don’t know they have it. Over time, elevated blood pressure can weaken the heart, blood vessels, kidneys and other parts of the body.
One author of the study is Mayank Sardana, MD, a clinical fellow at the University of California, San Francisco.
The study was presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology.
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