Consumer wearables are rapidly evolving beyond lifestyle tracking into tools with clinical potential. New research from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine shows that a wearable ring can estimate vascular age, a key indicator of cardiovascular health, using data collected passively during sleep.
Vascular age reflects how well a person’s arteries are aging compared to their chronological age. When vascular age exceeds actual age, the risk of cardiovascular disease increases significantly. Traditionally, measuring this parameter required specialized equipment in clinical settings, limiting its accessibility and large-scale application.
Sleep data as a diagnostic resource
The study, published in PLOS Digital Health, analyzed photoplethysmography (PPG) signals captured overnight with the Oura Ring. These light-based pulse signals, commonly used in fitness trackers, were processed using both conventional feature-based analysis and deep learning techniques.
Despite differences between consumer-grade devices and clinical sensors, the deep learning model achieved comparable performance across both. The system estimated vascular age with a mean error of six to seven years and showed strong agreement with participants’ actual ages. Importantly, the results also correlated with blood pressure, reinforcing their clinical relevance.
AI-driven analysis
According to researcher Gizem Yilmaz, the findings demonstrate that data collected passively during sleep can be translated into meaningful cardiovascular insights. This opens the door to continuous, longitudinal monitoring without requiring active user input or clinical visits.
A notable aspect of the study is that the researchers developed their own analytical pipeline, rather than relying on proprietary algorithms embedded in the wearable device. This improves transparency, reproducibility, and scientific validation. These are key factors for future clinical adoption.
Preventive health applications
Lead investigator Michael Chee emphasizes that wearable-derived vascular age could support earlier detection of cardiovascular risk and encourage preventive interventions. By embedding monitoring into daily life, such tools may help shift healthcare from reactive to proactive models.
Beyond individual care, the approach also holds promise for population health research, enabling large-scale data collection on cardiovascular trends over time. Further studies will focus on validating the technology across more diverse populations and assessing its role in clinical decision-making. If successful, wearable-based vascular monitoring could become an accessible, scalable component of preventive cardiovascular care worldwide.
Sleep trackers
Earlier this year, we wrote about the popularity of sleep trackers such as the Apple Watch, Fitbit and Oura Ring. Wearable device that offer users insights into sleep quality and patterns. However, experts stress that these devices do not directly measure sleep but estimate it using signals like heart rate and movement, raising questions about accuracy.
According to Daniel Forger from the University of Michigan, sleep trackers are reliable in detecting when users fall asleep or wake up, but less precise in distinguishing sleep stages compared to clinical sleep studies. Neurologist Chantale Branson highlights that these tools are best used to identify long-term trends rather than interpret single-night data.
While wearables can promote healthier behavior by increasing awareness of sleep habits, they may also lead to “orthosomnia,” where users become overly fixated on sleep scores. Experts emphasize that sleep trackers should complement, not replace, clinical evaluation, with their greatest future potential lying in early detection and preventive care.
