Wearable devices, along with location data from smartphones and real-time surveys, could help capture environmental exposures and their immediate physical and emotional effects, a new pilot study has shown.
“People move through many different environments each day, and this approach lets us capture that in real time,” Sameera Ramjan, a doctoral student in The City University of New York Graduate Centre Psychology program, said.
“We were struck by how quickly the data revealed patterns — changes in heart rate variability, shifts in mood — that lined up with where participants had been and what they were exposed to,” Ramjan said.
The study, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research Formative Research, analysed data recorded via participants’ Fitbit smartwatches that were worn for roughly a month. The participants also completed mood surveys known as ecological momentary assessments several times a day.
The data was combined with smartphone location tracking to estimate exposure to heat and air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and sulphur dioxide based on where the participants spent time throughout the day.
“This study demonstrates that the multimodal integration of wearable devices, GPS tracking, and EMA (ecological momentary assessment) is feasible for capturing real-time environmental exposures and concurrent health outcomes in young adults,” the authors wrote.
Analysis revealed that on days with a higher exposure to heat and nitrogen dioxide, the participants showed changes in heart rate variability, an indicator of the body’s ability to recover from stress.
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