by In the latest issue of the medical journal “Digital Health”, a study found that the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen sensor is as reliable as a medical-grade pulse oximeter. The study uses Apple Watch Series 6 as a representative to compare it with a medical-grade pulse oximeter to accurately measure blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) to diagnose hypoxemia.
The researchers recruited 24 healthy volunteers, who wore an Apple Watch Series 6 on their left wrist and a Masimo Radical-7 pulse oximeter on their left middle finger, and then performed a 3-stage test in a specially designed test device as required by the researchers. Breathing test, different stages will produce different blood oxygen levels. The researchers monitored and recorded readings from both devices during the process, resulting in a total of 642 sets of blood oxygen data collected.
After analyzing the overall data, the researchers concluded that the SpO2 deviation between the Apple Watch and the oximeter was 0.0%. When SpO2 is below 90%, the deviation is 1.2%, when the SpO2 reading is 90% to 100%, the difference between the two is expected to be within 6%, and when the SpO2 reading is below 90%, the difference is 8% . Blood oxygen saturation monitoring has been introduced to Apple Watch Series 6 since 2020, followed by Series 7 and this year’s Series 8 and Ultra.
Data and picture sources:9to5mac
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