Note: Electrodermal Activity Score (EDA) is only available for Body Comp scales purchased in the United States.
What is an Electrodermal Activity Score?
Electrodermal Activity Score is a US-only wellness metric that gives an indication of your nervous system’s control of sweat gland activity in your feet.
Electrodermal Activity Score (EDA) measures and assesses the activity of the sweat glands in the soles of your feet and helps manage your overall health as part of a healthy lifestyle. Sweat gland activity is measured by stimulating the nerves that control the sweat glands in your feet and seeing how they respond.
Electrodermal activity is a marker of the effect of your emotions on your body. EDA tracks the intensity of your emotions over time, using sweat to measure sympathetic nervous system function. Both happy and stressful situations will increase short-term EDA, but longer-term changes occur most commonly with stress. Your monthly EDA can help you understand your average stress levels over time.
How is EDA measured and my monthly score calculated?
EDA measures the ability of your sweat glands to release chloride ions in response to an electrical stimulus on the soles of the feet, an area with highest sweat gland density. A low voltage is applied on the soles of the feet and induces an electrochemical reaction which extracts chloride ions (Cl-) from the sweat glands.
To get the most accurate and representative score possible, our algorithm needs to analyze a series of EDA measurements. For this reason, we aggregate all your day-to-day measurements before providing a confirmed monthly score. By compensating for day-to-day fluctuations with this single monthly score, you’ll be able to focus on what matters.
What are the different results I can get?
EDA Score is available as a number between 0 and 100 in the application and a qualitative indication “Normal” or “Low” depending on whether the score is above or below 50.
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Normal Your Electrodermal Activity Score is within the normal range, indicating normal sweat gland activity. You can help maintain your sweat gland activity by taking care of your overall health. This includes staying hydrated, eating healthy, getting regular physical activity, getting enough restful sleep, and working with your doctor to manage any health issues that you may have.
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Low Your Electrodermal Activity Score is lower than average, indicating low sweat gland activity. You may improve your sweat gland activity, as well as your overall health, by staying hydrated, eating healthy, getting regular physical activity, getting enough restful sleep, and working with your doctor to manage any health issues that you may have.
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Pending The reading might be pending if we are not able to accurately assess your score. We might invite you to take a Guided Scan measurement using specific conditions in order to get a result.
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What is a Guided Scan?
Your Electrodermal Activity Score can fluctuate based on the conditions when taking your measurement. When Withings Body Comp is not able to accurately assess your score based on these fluctuations, a Guided Scan might be required in order to get a reading. A Guided Scan replicates the environment of a medical consultation to ensure optimal weigh-in conditions.
A Guided Scan can be launched at any time from the application on the EDA page. To do this, follow these steps:
- Open the Withings App.
- Select your most recent EDA measurement to access its measurement graph.
You can also select the Measure tab, scroll down, and then select Electrodermal Activity to access the graph. - Scroll to the bottom of the EDA graph screen to 'Options' and select Take a Guided Scan.
A Guided Scan will provide the following instructions:
- You should have been on your feet throughout the past hour.
- Remove your shoes prior to taking a measurement, but ensure that you are not barefoot for more than 10 minutes before weighing yourself.
- Make sure that the Body Comp & your feet are dust-free.
Note: To get the most accurate measurements, always take the EDA measurements under the conditions described in the Guided Scan instructions. Ignoring guidelines can impact your result.