Smart watch for monitoring physical activity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Abstract

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a tobacco-related chronic inflammatory disease of the lungs with still increasing prevalence worldwide. Wearable smart devices endorsed with accelerometers capable of recording health-related information including physical activity is becoming popular, and some of them have been validated for using in some diseased states but not in COPD. In this study, we tested the potential usefulness of smart watch to evaluate physical activity in COPD. Validation of the smart watch was done by correlating with data obtained from two types of accelerometer. Ten male patients (mean age: 73.9 ± 2.3 years old) with stable COPD that consulted the outpatient department of Matsusaka Municipal Hospital were enrolled in the study. The uniaxial accelerometry sensor Lifecorder the triaxial accelerometry sensor Actigraph and Smart watch (Apple inc., Cupertino, CA) were carried by all patients and the number of steps, energy expenditure in calories, time of exercise and distance walked were measured. The duration and intensity of physical activity and the number of steps recorded by the Lifecorder were significantly, proportionally and strongly correlated with all physical activity parameters measured by the Smart watch. Similarly, the number of steps and the amount of calorie measured by Actigraph was significantly correlated with all smart watch activity parameters. These findings suggest that the ability of monitoring physical activity in COPD patients by wearable smart watches is comparable to devices generally used in clinical practice.