Your smartwatch may be lying about your health

The smartwatch segment has exploded in the last few years, with millions of people now wearing a health-tracking device on their wrists. Not only do these wearables replace some functionalities that were limited to smartphones, they also offer an insight into various health metrics like sleep quality, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, step count and even blood pressure levels.

While it has always been understood that wearables are not a substitute for medical devices, a recent umbrella review underlined the limitations of these devices, indicating that the statistics they record are often prone to errors.