Apple Watch high blood pressure alerts now in India: Here’s how it works

Apple Watch users in India now finally have access to hypertension alerts. Here are the conditions and requirements for the feature.

Apple Watch is often touted as a powerful health-tracking device. Now, taking another step in that direction, Apple has finally brought the Hypertension Notification feature to users in India, which alerts users if chronic high blood pressure or hypertension is detected. Apple says hypertension is the leading risk factor for heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease, and it affects over 1.3 billion adults world over, and it is often left undiagnosed because it comes with no symptoms at all.

Apple Watch Series 9 and later watches support this feature. (REUTERS)

How does this feature work?

Hypertension Notification on Apple Watch uses hardware like the Optical Heart Sensor to check how a user’s blood vessels respond to the beats of a person’s heart. Then the algorithm works in the background to review the data over a 30-day period, and it will notify users if it detects consistent signs of hypertension.

Apple says that this feature has been developed using machine learning and by performing multiple studies over 1,00,000 participants, and then the performance was validated in a clinical study involving over 2,000 participants.

Which Apple Watch models are supported and how to enable this feature?

This feature works only on the Apple Watch Series 9 and later. That includes the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and the latest Series 11 models. It’s also supported on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Apple Watch Ultra 3.

To use this feature, you will also need the latest version of Apple watchOS. To enable it, go to your iPhone, open the Health app, tap your profile icon in the top corner, and under Features, you will find a listing called Health Checklist. You will then need to tap Hypertension Notifications, enter your age, and indicate whether you have previously been diagnosed with hypertension, and then tap Continue. You will learn how the notifications work, and then tap Done.

Also, you will need to be over 22 years of age to be eligible to use this feature.

Apple says that if you receive a notification of potential hypertension, you should discuss your blood pressure measurements and the notification with a healthcare professional. Apple will also ask you to prepare a blood pressure log and use a third-party blood pressure cuff to measure and track your blood pressure for the next seven days.