P048 Trends in Physical Activity and Sleep Quality in IBD Patients Measured with Wearable Biosensors During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Physical activity and sleep quality are associated with health-related quality of life in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Changes in lifestyle and stressors resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent public health response have been associated with alterations in physical activity and sleep in the general population (Tison GH, et al. 2020; Gao C, Scullin MK 2020). In Illinois, Governor Pritzker issued Executive Order 2020-10, to take effect on March 21, 2020, which directed residents to stay at their place of residence except for the participation in essential activities, essential government functions, or essential business operations; these “stay-at-home” restrictions were lifted on May 29. This study aimed to characterize changes in physical activity and sleep in IBD patients at our Center using passively collected biosensor data while the Illinois stay-at-home order was in effect. METHODS: We recruited adult patients with IBD at our center to undergo prospective monitoring of physical activity and sleep quality using biosensor data for one year. Patients were provided with a Fitbit (San Francisco, CA) and proprietary smartphone app (Litmus Health, Austin, TX) for data collection. We defined the stay-at-home period from March 21 to May 29 and the pre-stay-at-home period as the period of equal duration preceding the executive order (January 12 to March 20). Median step count, time in bed, sleep duration, and sleep efficiency (defined as proportion of time in bed spent asleep) were calculated along with interquartile ranges (IQR) for each patient during both periods. The distributions of the medians in the pre-stay-at-home period were compared to the stay-at-home period using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. RESULTS: Sixteen patients (9 women, 9 Crohn disease) had sufficient step count data collected through the biosensor during both the stay-at-home period and the preceding period. The median step count during the stay-at-home period (5852 steps, IQR 2618-6865) was lower than prior to the stay-at-home period (6464 steps, IQR 4545-7908), although the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.38). Due to greater variability in compliance utilizing the biosensor for sleep data collection, ten patients had complete sleep data throughout the study period. No difference in median sleep duration between the pre-stay-at-home period compared to the stay-at-home period was found (363 minutes [IQR, 355-389] vs. 384 minutes [IQR, 329-420], respectively, P = 0.50). Similarly, no differences were found in sleep efficiency (P = 0.94). CONCLUSION: Passively collected biosensor data revealed no significant changes in physical activity or sleep metrics in patients with IBD at our center after the Illinois stay-at-home order was issued in March 2020. The data may reflect the variable effects that the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated public health restrictions have had on physical activity and sleep in different patients in the study population.