Lim WK, Davila S, Teo JX, Yang C, Pua CJ, Blöcker C, et al. (2018) Beyond fitness tracking: The use of consumer-grade wearable data from normal volunteers in cardiovascular and lipidomics research. PLoS Biol 16(2): e2004285. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2004285
Abstract:
The use of consumer-grade wearables for purposes beyond fitness tracking has not been comprehensively explored. We generated and analyzed multidimensional data from 233 normal volunteers, integrating wearable data, lifestyle questionnaires, cardiac imaging, sphingolipid profiling, and multiple clinical-grade cardiovascular and metabolic disease markers. We show that subjects can be stratified into distinct clusters based on daily activity patterns and that these clusters are marked by distinct demographic and behavioral patterns. While resting heart rates (RHRs) performed better than step counts in being associated with cardiovascular and metabolic disease markers, step counts identified relationships between physical activity and cardiac remodeling, suggesting that wearable data may play a role in reducing overdiagnosis of cardiac hypertrophy or dilatation in active individuals. Wearable-derived activity levels can be used to identify known and novel activity-modulated sphingolipids that are in turn associated with insulin sensitivity. Our findings demonstrate the potential for wearables in biomedical research and personalized health.
License type:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Funding Info:
Funding: Tanoto Foundation http://www.tanotofoundation.org/en/. Received by SAC. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Lee Foundation. Received by KKY. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Singapore National Medical Research Council http://www.nmrc.gov.sg/ (grant number NMRC/STaR/0011/2012 and NMRC/STaR/0026/2015). Received by SAC and PT. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. National Heart Centre Singapore https://www.nhcs.com.sg/. Received by SAC. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Duke-NUS Medical School https://www.duke-nus.edu.sg/. Received by PT and SAC. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. SingHealth https://www.singhealth.com.sg/. Received by PT. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.