Tracking Personal Health-Environment Interaction with Novel Mobile Sensing Devices

Abstract

The development of connected health devices has allowed for a more accurate assessment of a person’s state under free-living conditions. In this work, we use two mobile sensing devices and investigate the correlation between individual’s resting metabolic rate (RMR) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) exposure levels. A total of 17 healthy, young, and sedentary office workers were recruited, measured for RMR with a mobile indirect calorimetry (IC) device, and compared with their corresponding predicted RMR values from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ recommended epidemiological equation, the Mifflin–St Jeor equation (MSJE). Individual differences in the RMR values from the IC device and the epidemiological equation were found, and the subjects’ RMRs were classified as normal, high, or low based on a cut-off of ±200 kcal/day difference with respect to the predicted value. To study the cause of the difference, VOCs exposure levels of each participant’s daytime working environment and nighttime resting environment were assessed using a second mobile sensing device for VOCs exposure detection. The results showed that all sedentary office workers had a low VOCs exposure level (<2 ppmC), and there was no obvious correlation between VOCs exposure and the RMR difference. However, an additional participant who was a worker in an auto repair shop, showed high VOCs exposure with respect to the sedentary office worker population and a significant difference between measured and predicted RMR, with a low RMR of 500 kcal/day difference. The mobile sensing devices have been demonstrated to be suitable for the assessment of direct information of human health–environment interactions at free-living conditions.

Wearable Sensor-Based Monitoring of Environmental Exposures and the Associated Health Effects: A Review

“…We found two studies examining the physiological effects of VOC exposure using portable sensors, as summarized in Table 2 . While both studies measured TVOC via portable sensors, one used a commercial device that contained a photoionization detector [ 54 ], and the other used a self-made portable device comprising an electrochemical sensor [ 53 ]. As for physiological measurements, the former measured respiratory function with a portable spirometer supervised by staff, whereas the latter measured the resting metabolic rate with a portable indirect calorimeter.…”

Prospects and Challenges of Volatile Organic Compound Sensors in Human Healthcare

“…Deng et al demonstrated improvements in stability of thermodynamic properties of known unstable sensing materials (molecularly imprinted polymer, MIP) for a quartz tuning fork (QTF) sensor. 149 This has been reported through modification of MIP by mixing polystyrene. Their study showed the adsorption response increased with rising temperature for a new sensor, while it showed the opposite for an aged one.…”

Integrating Electrochemical and Colorimetric Sensors with a Webcam Readout for Multiple Gas Detection

“…By multisensor integration in data, − the multisensor could supply more reliable, feasible, and accurate information otherwise hard to obtain from any single sensors, while multisensor integration in hardware could lower cost and minimize size by sharing components. It is these advantages that portable detectors − prefer for the purpose of personal exposure assessment. ,− Because multisensor design would enhance the affordability of portable detectors both physically and financially and expand their application and popularity, the more shared components, the more compact detector size, and the lower detector cost. Generally, sensors of different type share less components in integration than sensors of the same type.…”