Leiden University builds an early warning system for depression based on Fitrockr data analysis.​

The Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands is building an early warning system for depression with Garmin wearables and the Fitrockr Health Solutions platform. 

Depression  is  common,  debilitating,  often  chronic,  and  affects  young  people  disproportionately. Given that only 50% of patients improve under initial treatment, experts agree that prevention is the most effective way to change depression’s global disease burden. The biggest barrier to successful prevention is to identify individuals at risk for depression in the near future. To  close  this  gap,  Leiden university introduces  the  WARN-D study,  an effort to build a personalized early warning system for depression.

The study follows around 2,000 students over 2 years and collects digital phenotype data via the Garmin smartwatch Vivosmart 4, including sleep phases and duration, activity, heart rate, and stress. Data is collected, managed and analyzed with the Fitrockr Health Solutions platform.

The WARN-D study is funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. The data collection via the Fitrockr Health Solutions platform was approved by the Leiden University Research Ethics Committee Leiden.

Read the full study paper