The Impact of Wearable Technologies in Health Research: Scoping Review

Abstract

Background Wearable devices hold great promise, particularly for data generation for cutting-edge health research, and their demand has risen substantially in recent years. However, there is a shortage of aggregated insights into how wearables have been used in health research. Objective In this review, we aim to broadly overview and categorize the current research conducted with affordable wearable devices for health research. Methods We performed a scoping review to understand the use of affordable, consumer-grade wearables for health research from a population health perspective using the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) framework. A total of 7499 articles were found in 4 medical databases (PubMed, Ovid, Web of Science, and CINAHL). Studies were eligible if they used noninvasive wearables: worn on the wrist, arm, hip, and chest; measured vital signs; and analyzed the collected data quantitatively. We excluded studies that did not use wearables for outcome assessment and prototype studies, devices that cost >€500 (US $570), or obtrusive smart clothing. Results We included 179 studies using 189 wearable devices covering 10,835,733 participants. Most studies were observational (128/179, 71.5%), conducted in 2020 (56/179, 31.3%) and in North America (94/179, 52.5%), and 93% (10,104,217/10,835,733) of the participants were part of global health studies. The most popular wearables were fitness trackers (86/189, 45.5%) and accelerometer wearables, which primarily measure movement (49/189, 25.9%). Typical measurements included steps (95/179, 53.1%), heart rate (HR; 55/179, 30.7%), and sleep duration (51/179, 28.5%). Other devices measured blood pressure (3/179, 1.7%), skin temperature (3/179, 1.7%), oximetry (3/179, 1.7%), or respiratory rate (2/179, 1.1%). The wearables were mostly worn on the wrist (138/189, 73%) and cost <€200 (US $228; 120/189, 63.5%). The aims and approaches of all 179 studies revealed six prominent uses for wearables, comprising correlations—wearable and other physiological data (40/179, 22.3%), method evaluations (with subgroups; 40/179, 22.3%), population-based research (31/179, 17.3%), experimental outcome assessment (30/179, 16.8%), prognostic forecasting (28/179, 15.6%), and explorative analysis of big data sets (10/179, 5.6%). The most frequent strengths of affordable wearables were validation, accuracy, and clinical certification (104/179, 58.1%). Conclusions Wearables showed an increasingly diverse field of application such as COVID-19 prediction, fertility tracking, heat-related illness, drug effects, and psychological interventions; they also included underrepresented populations, such as individuals with rare diseases. There is a lack of research on wearable devices in low-resource contexts. Fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, we see a shift toward more large-sized, web-based studies where wearables increased insights into the developing pandemic, including forecasting models and the effects of the pandemic. Some studies have indicated that big data extracted from wearables may potentially transform the understanding of population health dynamics and the ability to forecast health trends.

Clinical feasibility of an advanced neonatal epidermal multiparameter continuous monitoring technology in a large public maternity hospital in Nairobi, Kenya

“…Previous studies have evaluated the accuracy of single parameter monitoring technologies under controlled experimental conditions or have performed qualitative feasibility assessments 30 , 31 . In our study, we utilized a comprehensive and integrated approach that included real-world accuracy evaluations combined with performance metrics such as up-time and event detection that are often important in critical clinical situations.…”

Nuevas tecnologías en Medicina

“…Por lo tanto, los DV son desarrollos valiosos, especialmente para generar datos para la investigación de la salud en grandes poblaciones, es decir, estudios de salud global o epidemiológicos, o en contextos de bajos ingresos. Estos dispositivos y otros especialmente diseñados para TMN han sido ampliamente estudiados para valorar su utilidad en la práctica clínica habitual [49].…”

“…Además de su utilidad en campos tan diversos como la predicción de la COVID-19, el seguimiento de la fertilidad, análisis de las enfermedades relacionadas con el calor, estudio de los efectos de los medicamentos o de intervenciones psicológicas, algunos estudios han indicado que los datos extraídos de los DV pueden transformar la comprensión de la dinámica sanitaria de la población y la capacidad de prever las tendencias sanitarias [49].…”

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“…The digital health technologies with the greatest potential to be amenable to BYOD studies are fitness trackers and smartwatches [ 2 ]. With intuitive and easy-to-use interfaces, embedded multi-modal sensors can derive various physiological measures, including physical activity, sleep, and vital sign data (e.g., heart rate, heart rate variability, pulse oximetry) [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ].…”