Smartphones could tell how soon people will die

A study of users’ walking habits could be used to predict mortality in the next five years, researchers suggest

(Pixabay)

Smartphones might be able to detect how soon someone might die by analysing how they walk, researchers have suggested.

In a new study, over 100,000 participants wore activity monitors for one week, but it only took six minutes of walking data per day for researchers to predict someone’s risk of dying within the next five years.

Combined with the wearer’s demographic information, their gait speed could be gathered by the phone and used in an algorithm to predict mortality rates; of the middle-aged and senior adults in the study, approximately two per cent died in the following years.