Risk of Dying

Data from just 6 minutes [blank] walking, collected via motion sensors on smartphones, may be enough to predict someone's risk of dying [blank] the next five years. Previous studies have estimated mortality risk using daily physical activity levels, measured by wearable motion sensors in devices like fitness watches. Yet despite the growing popularity of smart watches and fitness trackers, they are still mostly worn [blank] an affluent minority. Most people own smartphones with similar sensors, but calculating mortality risk from activity data they gather is difficult because people don't tend to carry their phones all day, says Bruce Schatz at the University [blank] Illinois Urbana-Champaign. To find an alternative predictor that is measurable with smartphones, Schatz and his colleagues looked [blank] data from 100,655 participants in the UK Biobank study, which has been collecting information on the health of middle-aged and senior adults living in the UK for more than 15 years. As part of that study, participants wore motion sensors [blank] their wrists for one week. About 2 per cent of the participants died over the next five years.