AirPods Pro 2 offer the world's first comprehensive hearing health experience, including a clinical-grade, over-the-counter hearing aid feature, and the Apple Watch offers new sleep apnea notifications.
California's Cupertino, In order to further fulfill its commitment to health by providing users with experiences that enhance their lives, Apple unveiled innovative sleep and hearing health features that will be available on the Apple Watch and AirPods Pro 2. These new features spread to other products, offering users effective and educational ways to support their hearing and sleep health for conditions that affect billions of people worldwide.
Sleep apnea alerts are added to the Apple Watch's many ways it serves as an intelligent health guardian by utilizing a novel new Breathing Disturbances metric. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other international health authorities are anticipated to grant marketing authorization for the sleep apnea notifications shortly. They will be made available this month in over 150 countries and regions, including the US, the EU, and Japan.
With AirPods Pro with Loud Sound Reduction, a clinically validated Hearing Test feature, and an over-the-counter Hearing Aid feature, Apple is offering the first comprehensive hearing health experience in the world. Accessing hearing aids at an affordable price point is now easier than ever thanks to the first-of-its-kind software-based feature. More than 100 countries and regions, including the United States, Germany, and Japan, will have access to the Hearing Test and Hearing Aid features this fall after they are soon to receive marketing authorization from international health authorities.
Sumbul Desai, M.D., Apple's vice president of health, stated, "At Apple, we believe that technology can help you live a healthier life, and we're excited to enable incredible new health capabilities for serious conditions that affect billions of people worldwide, while continuing to keep user data private." "With the new sleep apnea alerts on the Apple Watch, we continue to give our users the opportunity to identify critical health issues. Additionally, AirPods Pro's robust features prioritize users' hearing health by offering new methods for both testing for and receiving support for hearing loss.
As it affects a person's general physical and mental health, sleep is a crucial aspect of health. A common condition called sleep apnea causes breathing to briefly stop while you're asleep, depriving your body of oxygen. Over 1 billion people are thought to be affected by the illness globally, and it is typically left undiagnosed. Over time, it may have serious health effects if untreated, such as an elevated risk of heart problems, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension.
An inventive new Apple Watch metric called Breathing Disturbances uses the accelerometer to identify slight wrist movements linked to disruptions in regular breathing patterns while you sleep. If the Apple Watch consistently displays symptoms of moderate to severe sleep apnea, it will analyze data on breathing disturbances every 30 days and alert users so they can discuss possible diagnosis and treatment options with their physician.
Breathing disturbances can also be used to measure how restful a person's sleep is, since overall sleep quality is crucial. A number of factors, including sleep position, drugs, and alcohol, can affect breathing disturbances. The Health app allows users to view their nightly breathing disturbances over a period of one month, six months, or a year. These disturbances are categorized as elevated or not elevated.
Users can export a PDF that includes three months of breathing disturbance data, information on when sleep apnea may have occurred, and other details for better discussions with their healthcare providers. To help users learn more about sleep apnea, the Health app also offers educational articles.
Advanced machine learning and a large dataset of clinical-grade sleep apnea tests were used to develop the sleep apnea notification algorithm. After that, the feature was confirmed in a clinical study that was the largest of its kind for sleep apnea technology. All of the algorithm-identified participants in the clinical validation study had at least mild sleep apnea.
According to Sairam Parthasarathy, M.D., professor and director of the University of Arizona Health Sciences Centre for Sleep, Circadian, and Neurosciences in Tucson, Arizona, "enabling consumers worldwide to have the ability to reliably identify the presence of abnormal breathing patterns during sleep can help uncover a woefully underdiagnosed and serious medical condition such as sleep apnea." "This is a significant advancement in public health."
Among the many sleep health features available to Apple Watch users are notifications for sleep apnea and breathing disturbances. The Apple Watch helps users track their sleep over time and meet their sleep goals in addition to monitoring vital health metrics like heart rate and respiratory rate during the night.
The World Health Organization estimates that 1.5 billion individuals worldwide suffer from hearing loss. Additionally, studies have found connections between hearing loss and effects on a person's general health, such as social isolation and dementia.
Apple is launching an end-to-end experience that emphasizes prevention, awareness, and support to help users better understand their hearing health.
One in three people are frequently exposed to high environmental noise levels that can affect their hearing, according to the Apple Hearing Study, a longitudinal, virtual public research study carried out in partnership with the World Health Organization and the University of Michigan School of Public Health. This can include everyday situations like riding the subway to work, doing your own lawn care, going to a sporting event, and many more.
With the AirPods Pro, users can opt for Loud Sound Reduction, which reduces background noise while maintaining the audio quality of their chosen music.While the H2 chip actively reduces louder, more intermittent noise at a rate of 48,000 times per second, the ear tips aid in passive noise reduction. Loud Sound Reduction is useful in a range of loud settings and is enabled by default in the Transparency and Adaptive Audio listening modes. Additionally, the sounds at live events like concerts stay vibrant and natural thanks to a brand-new multiband high dynamic range algorithm.
Many people are unaware that they may have hearing loss because it often worsens gradually. In the past five years, 80 percent of American adults have not had their hearing examined, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Apple is launching a simple, clinical-grade hearing test called pure-tone audiometry, which is based on the accepted clinical method, to provide users with even more information about their hearing health. Users can take the test on their own using their AirPods Pro and a compatible iPhone or iPad.
The easy test can be completed by users from the comfort of their own homes in roughly five minutes. The Hearing Test feature offers users an interactive experience while utilizing cutting-edge acoustic science. After finishing the test, the user will see an understandable summary of their findings that includes recommendations, a classification, and a number that represents the amount of hearing loss in each ear. The results, which include an audiogram, can be shared with a healthcare provider to have better informed discussions. They are safely and privately stored in the Health app.
The Hearing Test was created using extensive, real-world data and expands on the findings of the Apple Hearing Study. Pure-tone audiometry, the clinical gold standard, was then used to validate the feature.
The foundation of total wellbeing is hearing health. Both immediately and over time, protecting and maintaining our hearing improves our quality of life, according to Rick Neitzel, principal investigator of the Apple Hearing Study and professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. "I'm overjoyed that Apple is launching valuable resources to promote the health of people's hearing. With the use of these tools, people will be able to shield their ears from noise pollution, recognize changes in their hearing over time, and have crucial discussions with their healthcare providers when they require extra assistance.
Gaining knowledge about hearing loss is essential to receiving the help you need, which is frequently difficult because of access and cost. According to international research, hearing loss frequently goes untreated. According to the Apple Hearing Study, 75% of those with a hearing loss diagnosis have not gotten the necessary assistive support.
For those with mild to moderate hearing loss, AirPods Pro offer a cutting-edge over-the-counter hearing aid feature. This new feature turns AirPods Pro into a clinical-grade hearing aid in an effortless manner by using the customized hearing profile from the Hearing Test. The feature allows users to customize dynamic adjustments after setup, allowing the sounds around them to be amplified in real time. They are able to converse more effectively and maintain social and environmental connections as a result. With the amazing sound quality of AirPods Pro, users don't have to change any settings because their unique hearing profile is automatically applied to music, movies, games, and phone calls on all of their devices. An audiogram made by a hearing health specialist can also be used by users to configure the Hearing Aid feature.
A controlled, randomized study that assessed the perceived value of the feature and its personalized settings in comparison to an audiologist-assisted setup clinically validated the Hearing Aid feature.
More people, including those with little to no hearing loss, can benefit from specific adjustments at individual frequencies by customizing their AirPods Pro listening experience based on their hearing profile after completing the Hearing Test. A brand-new feature called Media Assist helps enhance specific speech segments during phone calls or musical elements in a soundtrack to cater to a wider audience and enhance the listening experience.
The tools Apple currently provides its users for hearing health are enhanced by these features. The Noise app, for instance, allows Apple Watch users to set up alerts for situations in which ambient noise levels may compromise their hearing. On the iPhone, users can adjust the volume limit on their headphones by turning on Reduce Loud Audio and dragging a slider to the decibel level they want. Additional accessibility features are also available from Apple, allowing users to adjust settings to suit their hearing requirements.
According to Sarah Herrlinger, senior director of Global Accessibility Policy and Initiatives at Apple, "Apple has been at the forefront of creating products for everyone and assisting users with a wide range of hearing abilities for decades." "By raising awareness about hearing health and providing people with new customizable tools to help them stay connected, these features on AirPods Pro will have a significant impact on a large number of people."
The new Vitals app on the Apple Watch allows users to view important health metrics, such as heart rate and respiratory rate, and check in on their daily health status. It also helps users better understand their health.
Pregnant users can reflect changes in their physical and mental health during this crucial time with the help of the Health app. Cycle Tracking allows users to record symptoms and view the current gestational age. Recommendations to review features such as high heart rate notifications are also available to Apple Watch users.
Users can record their mental state directly in the Journal, and journaling time can be saved as mindful minutes in the Health app.
Since releasing the Health app in 2014, Apple has added useful features to the Apple Watch, AirPods, iPhone, and iPad that centre on 18 aspects of fitness and health. By incorporating practical, scientifically based features with privacy at their core into the products they use on a daily basis, Apple is dedicated to empowering users on their health journey.
All of Apple's health features are designed and developed with privacy as a top priority. All of a user's fitness and health information in the Health app, with the exception of Medical ID, is encrypted when their device is locked using a passcode, Touch ID, or Face ID. All health data that is backed up to iCloud is encrypted on Apple servers and while it is in transit. Health app data synced to iCloud is encrypted end-to-end when using iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS with the default two-factor authentication and a passcode. This means that Apple cannot read the data because it lacks the key to decrypt it.
Certain features might not be accessible in every language or location, or with every make and model.
The FDA and other international health authorities are anticipated to grant marketing authorization for the sleep apnea notifications shortly, and they will be made available this month in over 150 nations and regions, including the US, the EU, and Japan. The Apple Watch Ultra 2, Apple Watch Series 9, and Apple Watch Series 10 will all support the feature.
This fall, the Hearing Test and Aid features will be available in over 100 countries and regions, including the U.S., Germany, and Japan. They will be compatible with AirPods Pro 2 with the most recent firmware when paired with a compatible iPhone or iPad, and they are anticipated to receive marketing authorization from international health authorities shortly.
When paired with a compatible iPhone, iPad, or Mac running the most recent operating system software, Loud Sound Reduction is compatible with AirPods Pro 2 with the most recent firmware.
