Abstract
BackgroundRecent studies have thoughtfully and convincingly demonstrated the possibility of estimating the circadian rhythms of young adults’ social activity by analyzing their telephone call-detail records (CDRs). In the field of health monitoring, this development may offer new opportunities for supervising a patient’s health status by collecting objective, unobtrusive data about their daily social interactions. However, before considering this future perspective, whether and how similar results could be observed in other populations, including older ones, should be established.ObjectiveThis study was designed specifically to address the circadian rhythms in the telephone calls of older adults.MethodsA longitudinal, 12-month dataset combining CDRs and questionnaire data from 26 volunteers aged 65 years or older was used to examine individual differences in the daily rhythms of telephone call activity. The study used outgoing CDRs only and worked with three specific telecommunication parameters: (1) call recipient (alter), (2) time of day, and (3) call duration. As did the studies involving young adults, we analyzed three issues: (1) the existence of circadian rhythms in the telephone call activity of older adults, (2) their persistence over time, and (3) the alter-specificity of calls by calculating relative entropy.ResultsWe discovered that older adults had their own specific circadian rhythms of outgoing telephone call activity whose salient features and preferences varied across individuals, from morning until night. We demonstrated that rhythms were consistent, as reflected by their persistence over time. Finally, results suggested that the circadian rhythms of outgoing telephone call activity were partly structured by how older adults allocated their communication time across their social network.ConclusionsOverall, these results are the first to have demonstrated the existence, persistence, and alter-specificity of the circadian rhythms of the outgoing telephone call activity of older adults. These findings suggest an opportunity to consider modern telephone technologies as potential sensors of daily activity. From a health care perspective, these sensors could be harnessed for unobtrusive monitoring purposes.
Highlights
BackgroundCircadian rhythms of activity—biological processes working on 24-hour cycles—can be used to represent relevant temporal markers in an individual’s life
Principal Findings Because studies to date on the circadian rhythms of telephone telecommunications at the individual level have focused especially on young individuals [22,23,24,25], we investigated whether similar results could be observed among older adults
JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2020 | vol 8 | iss. 2 | e12452 | p. 10 compare our results with those in the existing literature, we used the methodology proposed by Aalto University [22] and focused on three specific issues: (1) the existence, (2) the consistency, and (3) the alter-specificity of the circadian rhythms of outgoing telephone call activity among older adults
Summary
BackgroundCircadian rhythms of activity—biological processes working on 24-hour cycles—can be used to represent relevant temporal markers in an individual’s life. Two recent reviews [8,12] on this subject notably described how this approach offers unprecedented opportunities to enhance traditional health care systems by using objective, inexpensive, and easy-to-use sensors [8] These record individuals’ daily physical activities in a precise, real-time manner to help detect risky behaviors [7], signs of cognitive dysfunction [13], or severe events such as personal injury accidents [14], whose occurrence may increase with age. From a health care perspective, these sensors could be harnessed for unobtrusive monitoring purposes
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