Usability of a Low-Cost Wearable Health Device for Physical Activity and Sleep Duration in Healthy Adults

For public health and epidemiology, an understanding of physical activity and sleep duration is important. People found decreased physical activity and short sleep duration as they aged. The development of healthy behaviors in the early life will ensure a better quality of late life. Innovated health devices, such as wearable sensors may provide a solution for monitoring and developing healthy behaviors. In this study, we aimed to explore the usability of a simple, low-cost wearable health device, Mi, for physical activity and sleep duration in healthy adults. Participants were asked to wear the Mi on their non-dominant wrist for seven consecutive days. The total walking steps and sleep time were recorded. We found that the male participants walk more, in particular young adults. As for sleep duration, the female participants sleep more, especially adults. In addition, participants revealed they could tolerate wearing the Mi all day long including at night. This study demonstrated the usability of the wearable health device for continuously recording of physical activity and sleep duration. It is hoping that the wearable health devices can be used for everyone and everywhere to promote health.

[1]  F. Tao,et al.  Low Physical Activity and High Screen Time Can Increase the Risks of Mental Health Problems and Poor Sleep Quality among Chinese College Students , 2015, PloS one.

[2]  L. Chang,et al.  Physical Activity, Body Mass Index, and Cardiorespiratory Fitness among School Children in Taiwan: A Cross-Sectional Study , 2014, International journal of environmental research and public health.

[3]  J. Tzeng,et al.  Validity and reliability of the Taiwanese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index in cancer patients. , 2012, International journal of nursing studies.

[4]  J. Brug,et al.  What features do Dutch university students prefer in a smartphone application for promotion of physical activity? A qualitative approach , 2015, International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

[5]  Catrine Tudor-Locke,et al.  How Many Steps/Day Are Enough? Preliminary Pedometer Indices for Public Health , 2004 .

[6]  Subin Park,et al.  Associations of physical activity with sleep satisfaction, perceived stress, and problematic Internet use in Korean adolescents , 2014, BMC Public Health.

[7]  K. Volpp,et al.  Accuracy of smartphone applications and wearable devices for tracking physical activity data. , 2015, JAMA.

[8]  Catrine Tudor-Locke,et al.  A step-defined sedentary lifestyle index: <5000 steps/day. , 2013, Applied physiology, nutrition, and metabolism = Physiologie appliquee, nutrition et metabolisme.

[9]  Adam N. Sanborn,et al.  Better Quality Sleep Promotes Daytime Physical Activity in Patients with Chronic Pain? A Multilevel Analysis of the Within-Person Relationship , 2014, PloS one.

[10]  Catrine Tudor-Locke,et al.  Health benefits of a pedometer-based physical activity intervention in sedentary workers. , 2004, Preventive medicine.

[11]  Liang Xu,et al.  [Reliability and validity regarding the Chinese version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaires (long self-administrated format) on women in Chengdu, China]. , 2008, Zhonghua liu xing bing xue za zhi = Zhonghua liuxingbingxue zazhi.

[12]  Bijan Najafi,et al.  Novel Wearable Technology for Assessing Spontaneous Daily Physical Activity and Risk of Falling in Older Adults with Diabetes , 2013, Journal of diabetes science and technology.

[13]  Jacob E. Barkley,et al.  The relationship between cell phone use, physical and sedentary activity, and cardiorespiratory fitness in a sample of U.S. college students , 2013, International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

[14]  Hsing-Yi Chang,et al.  Assessing physical activity in an Asian country: low energy expenditure and exercise frequency among adults in Taiwan. , 2008, Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition.