Researchers at the University of North Carolina’s medical school will be receiving a donation of 1,000 Apple Watches to assist in a study surrounding eating disorders. Researchers believe that the devices could help those in the study to track heart-rate data related to the onset of eating disorders.
The study is called BEGIN, Binge Eating Genetics Initiative. According to Cynthia Bulik, one of the researchers of BEGIN and founding director of the Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders at UNC, they are planning to recruit 1,000 volunteers aged 18 or older who have experience with binge eating disorders or bulimia nervosa.
When a person has a binge eating disorder, they will typically consume large amounts of food uncontrollably in a small period of time. If a person follows that behavior with purging or excessive exercise to compensate for the overeating, a doctor will typically diagnose them with bulimia nervosa.
For those who experience either of these eating disorders who enroll in the program, they will sign up with Recovery Road, a mobile app that is designed to help users record their thoughts and feelings on a digital platform. The app then shares their personal logs with their doctor before a session.
Participants will only spend about 10 minutes every day writing these records. For more scientifically measurable data, each of the study’s participants will be given a free Apple Watch. The study’s researchers will be able to monitor each participant’s heart rate by using the watch’s sensor to discover if there are spikes in heart rate before binge eating episodes. Researchers will monitor this for a month-long duration.
According to Bulik, it is likely that an episode of binging and subsequent purging would lease to a biological change that Apple Watch data could capture. This valuable data could show researchers a way to predict binge eating episodes before they happen in the future. If researchers can identify a predictive method, they could perform a follow-up study to find out if an alert of some kind could help participants with managing their disorders.
While over 14.3 million tons of donated textiles from America help clothe people around the world, this kind of donation from Apple could lead to breakthroughs in scientists’ understanding of eating disorders.
“We’re interested to find out what happens in the time period leading up to the binge and the purge,” said Jenna Tregarthen, CEO of Recovery Road.
