Cardiovascular and Pre-Frailty Risk Assessment during Shelter-In-Place Measures Based on Multimodal Biomarkers Collected from Smart Telemedical Wearables

Abstract

Wearable devices play a growing role in healthcare applications and disease prevention. We conducted a retrospective study to assess cardiovascular and pre-frailty risk during the Covid-19 shelter-in-place measures on human activity patterns based on multimodal biomarkers collected from smartwatch sensors. For methodology validation we enrolled five adult participants (age range: 32 to 84 years; mean 57 ± 22.38; BMI: 27.80 ± 2.95 kg/m2) categorized by age who were smartwatch users and self-isolating at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. Resting heart rate, daily steps, and minutes asleep were recorded using smartwatch sensors. Overall, we created a dataset of 464 days of continuous measurement that included 50 days of self-isolation at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. Student’s t-test was used to determine significant differences between the pre-Covid-19 and Covid-19 periods. Our findings suggest that there was a significant decrease in the number of daily steps (−57.21%; −4321; 95% CI, 3722 to 4920) and resting heart rate (−4.81%; −3.04; 95% CI, 2.59 to 3.51) during the period of self−isolation compared to the time before lockdown. We found that there was a significant decrease in the number of minutes asleep (−13.48%; −57.91; 95% CI, 16.33 to 99.49) among older adults. Finally, cardiovascular and pre-frailty risk scores were calculated based on biomarkers and evaluated from the clinical perspective.

Daily Physical Activity and Sleep Measured by Wearable Activity Trackers during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Lesson for Preventing Physical Inactivity during Future Pandemics

“…A small retrospective observational study in Poland showed similar results [22]. Five subjects who self-isolated at home during the COVID-19 pandemic were enrolled in this study, and their daily steps, resting heart rate, and sleep duration were recorded for 464 days.…”

E-Health Interventions for Older Adults With Frailty: A Systematic Review

“…specialized care. So, it could monitor sleep quality and provide feedback on how to improve sleep habits, which may help reduce the risk of frailty [ 32 ]. Additionally, researchers and practitioners can use motion sensors mounted on the upper limbs (i.e., lower arm/wrist, upper arm) to evaluate dietary intake and eating behavior in both laboratory and free-living conditions by using wearable sensing technology (e.g., commercial inertial sensors, fitness bands, and smart watches) [ 33 ].…”

Early identification of frailty: Developing an international delphi consensus on pre-frailty

“…Recent consensus on frailty screening in primary care settings supports individual-level and opportunistic screening at point-of-care [50]; however, participants in that study noted that at present there is little evidence for the effectiveness of population-level screening, monitoring and surveillance of pre-frailty [58]. Considering recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and advancements in healthcare technology, innovative solutions including walking sensors [59], remote patient monitoring and telehealth [60] may represent the future of resourceefficient rapid screening for pre-frailty. Given their novelty, these new and potentially practical Author accepted version prior to publisher formatting.…”