Use of Mobile Wearable Devices to Compare Eating, Physical Activity, and Sleep Between Individuals Following Vegetarian and Omnivorous Diets

Abstract

An emerging area of nutrition research is examining the health benefits of consuming plant-based diets (PBDs) since vegans or vegetarians tend to have better health outcomes than omnivores. However, a majority of the studies on PBDs rely on self-reported data for measuring dietary data and other variables, which are prone to bias or measurement error. One way to potentially address the limitations from current research is to use objective measurements. The development of various mobile health (mHealth) technologies, such as smart phone applications, automated text messaging, or wearable fitness activity monitors, allows researchers to use a low-cost and low-burden approach for objectively measuring dietary data. This informed the development of the present study. We identified two wearable mHealth devices—the Bite Counter and Misfit Flash—for the purpose of assessing eating, physical activity (PA), and sleep as compared to self-reported methods (dietary recalls, PA questionnaire, sleep dairies). Thirty-four participants that were following one of two diets (n = 12 vegetarian; n = 22 omnivore) enrolled in the study and used both devices for a week. Examining data from the devices, the vegetarian group averaged more daily steps (9909 ± 878 vegetarian vs. 6450 ± 566 omnivore, p < 0.001) and the omnivore group averaged more minutes of light sleep each night (247.4 ± 11.8 omnivore vs. 182.3 ± 18.9 vegetarian, p < 0.001); however, there were no differences in self-reported sleep or PA measures. These findings suggest wearable methods may represent a low-burden and more effective approach to collecting behavioral data that may not be captured using traditional self-reported methods.