Apple is donating 1,000 Apple Watches to help university researchers gain a better understanding of eating disorders such as binge eating or the more specific bulimia nervosa …
CNBC (via MacRumors) reports that the study is being carried out at the University of North Carolina.
The school aims to recruit 1,000 volunteers who have binge eating disorders. The primary data is a log of thoughts and feelings collected through an app called Recovery Record. But researchers believe that heart-rate data may also prove valuable.
At least 30 million people in the US are believed to suffer from eating disorders of some kind, and one aim of the study is to determine whether being able to predict binge eating ahead of time – and sending the user an alert – could prove helpful in diverting behavior.
“We need to collect data from a whole lot of people to see what it looks like,” said Bulik. “We want to know if it has a biological and behavioral signature.”
Initially marketed primarily as a handy device for notifications and data, Apple has increasingly positioned the Watch as a health and fitness device – from monitoring workouts to defecting life-threatening heart conditions.
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