Reducing Arterial Stiffness with a Smart Ring and AI-Guided Exercise

Summary

The goal of this three-month clinical trial is to study if wearing an Oura Ring and following the exercise guidance provided by an AI-based Advisor in the Oura App works to reduce arterial stiffness. It will also study the difference between different exercise protocols in reducing arterial stiffness and improving aerobic fitness. The main questions the study aims to answer are:

* Can an AI-based Advisor provide useful exercise guidance that helps improve cardiovascular health and aerobic fitness?
* Does regular exercise lower arterial stiffness measured with a clinical reference device and Oura Ring's proprietary Cardiovascular Age -metric and its estimated arterial stiffness?
* Is there a difference between attending supervised high-intensity interval (HIIT) training sessions and following personalized exercise instructions for steady-state aerobic training?

Participants will:

* Follow Oura's AI Advisor's instructions at their own convenience, attend supervised training sessions, or just wear the Ring without changing their lifestyle
* Visit an exercise physiology lab in the beginning of the trial and after three months for measurements in arterial stiffness, cardiorespiratory fitness, and body composition

In addition, the study contains questionnaires investigating the participants' experiences related to lifestyle changes.

Conditions

• Arterial Stiffness
• Maximal Oxygen Uptake

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Exercise

Participant will communicate with a "chatbot-like" proprietary AI to receive exercise instructions. The AI will provide personalized advice according to the user's needs, aiming for 2-3 hours of steady-state zone 2 -effort aerobic exercise. Instructions will also be tailored to the user's exercise preferences and limitations (for example, suggest cycling, if running is not convenient).

BEHAVIORAL

Exercise

Supervised HIIT -cycling twice a week. Intensities for cycling intervals will are based on the participants fitness-level determined at first visit. Intensity will gradually increase over the 12-week period

DEVICE

Smart Ring

Participants will only receive an Oura Ring, but will not change anything about their normal physical activity.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Kuopio Research Institute of Exercise Medicine

  collaborator OTHER

• Pauli Ohukainen

  lead INDUSTRY

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

30 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-09-16

Primary Completion

2025-07-31

Completion

2025-07-31

Countries

• Finland

Study Locations