Apple Announces New Health Study Involving the iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods

Wednesday February 12, 2025 6:13 am PST by Joe Rossignol

A new comprehensive Apple Health Study is launching today in the Apple Research app. Apple says U.S. residents can participate in the study if they meet the minimum age requirements, and complete the informed consent process.

The new Apple Health Study aims to further understand how technology, including the iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods, can "play a role in advancing and improving physical health, mental health, and overall wellbeing."

The research study will also "explore relationships between various areas of health, such as mental health's impact on heart rate, or how sleep can influence exercise."

This is Apple's most holistic research study yet. It will track how technology impacts many aspects of health and diseases, including activity, aging, cardiovascular health, circulatory health, cognition, hearing, menstrual health, mental health, metabolic health, mobility, neurologic health, respiratory health, sleep, and more.

The all-encompassing Apple Health Study builds upon the Apple Women's Health Study, Apple Hearing Study, and Apple Heart and Movement Study.

Apple is conducting the study in collaboration with Brigham and Women's Hospital, a leading research hospital and Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate.

Apple Research is available in the App Store for the iPhone and Apple Watch. The app was updated today with the Apple Health Study.

Tag: Apple Research

Popular Stories

Crackgate? iPhone Duo Owners Report Screens Breaking Along the Hinge

Friday October 23, 2026 11:05 am PDT by Juli Clover

Some iPhone Duos are already experiencing hinge issues that cause display cracks, based on photos shared on Reddit and the MacRumors forums. Almost all of the display faults are right along the hinge, and most result in a line of bright pixels across one side of the screen. An iPhone Duo owner in Australia said his device cracked after being opened fewer than 20 times, and there was no...

• 523 comments

Apple Music Has a Hidden iPod You Can Play With

Friday October 23, 2026 7:11 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

Apple Music has a 404 page easter egg on the web: a functional iPod that appears when you load a page that does not exist, such as music.apple.com/macrumors. "Page Not Found," says Apple. "Give this a spin instead." Apple is clever with this. If you navigate to music.apple.com/ipod instead, the page says "Looking for something?" instead of "Page Not Found." The easter egg is only...

• 82 comments

Apple Pulls Keynote, Pages and Numbers From App Store [Update: Back]

Thursday October 22, 2026 11:01 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple has temporarily removed Keynote, Pages, and Numbers from the App Store, just after releasing an update that added iPhone Duo support and a new Intelligent Assistant. It is not clear if the apps were removed intentionally, or if it is a bug. Apple has not said when the apps will be reinstated, but if it was in error, they should return soon. Update: The Mac versions are back without...

• 72 comments

Top Rated Comments

Amazing Iceman

22 months ago

My experience with these studies and surveys TMI. No guarantee the personal data will not get shared to the insurance industries etc. While they may have medical benefits, TMI collected and floating around the internet a high risk. A direct discussion with a doctor, fine. Sharing my watch and or App data, no.

Apple Studies are kept anonymous. your profile becomes a number that's not related to you personally.
Already there's a lot more personal information about you floating around on the internet that you can imagine.
If this study was conducted by Facebook or Google, then I would be worried.

Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)

DrJR

22 months ago

Nothing yet for ED….. sigh….

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)

turbineseaplane

22 months ago

Please also study the human impacts of carrying around an always connected attention sucking addiction device

I call them "iPhones"

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Amazing Iceman

22 months ago

Nothing yet for ED….. sigh….

Not until they release the Ring

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

roncron

22 months ago

I'm a little skeptical they'd ever publish study results that said or implied...

"For your mental health, you really should get rid of your smartphone"

It's like expecting a tobacco industry study to pump out a result of "you should quit smoking"

Your skepticism is very reasonable and understandable.

But I think this case is different. If people reduce their daily phone usage by 25%, Apple still will sell the same number of phones. But if smokers cut their daily tobacco use by 25%, tobacco companies will sell 25% fewer cigarettes.

Also, Apple developed the screen time app (introduced in iOS 12, give or take?) to help people who want to reduce their phone usage. Apple spent money to develop that app, and it’s not clear that the app generates revenue for Apple. I don’t know of any initiatives the tobacco companies have taken to help folks who want to reduce their dependence on tobacco products, with the possible exception of court-ordered actions like warning labels and educational materials.

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)