A team of California researchers set out to investigate whether fitness trackers like the Oura Ring could detect early signs of COVID-19, and found a possible connection to depressive symptoms reported by participants based on the body temperature data provided by the Oura Ring. More details are below.
The TemPredict Study conducted by the University of California began in 2020, spanned seven months, and involved 20,880 participants from 106 countries. The study aimed to determine the capability of Oura Rings to identify early signs of COVID-19, which it successfully did. The study revealed that the Oura Ring was able to detect potential infection an average of 2.75 days before participants tested positive for Covid.
The Oura Ring utilizes biometrics to provide users with comprehensive health data, including heart rate, blood oxygen levels, sleep analysis, and crucially, body temperature. According to Oura’s website:
Oura tracks changes in temperature and heart rate to alert users of possible illness.
A February 5 publication in Scientific Reports unveils the findings of the TemPredict Study, indicating that Oura Rings can detect depressive symptoms in individuals. During the study, participants were required to submit their vital signs collected by the Oura Ring, and also self-report their emotional and mental health through daily surveys.
The study revealed that participants with higher awake body temperatures also reported feelings of depression and higher rates of depressive symptoms in their daily surveys. The researchers stated:
Notably, the analyses confirmed previous findings that daytime self-reported body temperature was linked to increased depressive symptoms, and expanded on a previous study indicating that the difference in body temperature between sleep and wakefulness was more than twice as large among individuals with depression compared to controls.
Although it is uncertain whether poor body temperature regulation is a symptom of depression or vice versa, the study’s researchers noted that individuals with depression showed an overall alteration in their natural immune-based feedback system.
This suggests that individuals without depression experience natural temperature fluctuations throughout the day and over time, whereas those with depression struggled to cool their bodies as effectively (via Sacramento Bee).
Connect the Watts’ Perspective
Having been a fan of Oura Ring for some time, there is nothing surprising in this study for me. While I have not experienced depressive states or feelings of depression, the advanced technology of the Oura Ring (in my opinion, lightyears ahead of competitors) prompted a group of researchers to select it as the fitness tracker for the study. The researchers not only found that Oura Ring can help detect early signs of Covid, but it can also identify depressive states.
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