Preliminary investigations of the agreement between two wearable accelerometers for use in clinical studies

Abstract

Healthcare providers continue to address the challenges caused by aging populations, chronic disease management, hospitalization costs, as well as significant legal risks. Characterisation of physical activity and sedentary behaviour within ambulatory conditions is becoming increasingly popular in view of growing evidence for the health implications of these tendencies. Wearable technology can potentially offer a solution to these problems by using state-of-the-art sensors and wearable systems as well as secure and effective networks of communication between patients and clinicians. The primary aim of this study is to investigate levels of agreement between two wearable sensors for use in clinical studies. Establishing validity of these wearable devices is of particular interest as they may be utilised in future clinical studies to monitor sleep and activity patterns over prolonged time periods. Initial visualization of data from physical activity and periods of inactivity show high similarity between devices for ambulatory conditions and standardized activities. However, future steps concerning alignment of timestamps needs to be utilized in order to coordinate the devices' outputs.