Communication between the researcher and the researched. Designing an application based study regarding effects of air pollution on ocular surface diseases

Abstract

PurposeTo inform application users about current air pollution and their ocular surface state. To gather data concerning correlation between air pollution and ocular surface diseases.MethodsAirPoll is a mobile application that serves as a gateway to a nation‐wide air pollution study. We designed it using Apple's Research Kit – an open source software framework for medical researchers. After all the permissions are granted and consent form is signed digitally, the application uses phone's Global Positioning System to determine user's location and then connects to the server of US Environmental Protection Agency to determine the level of various air pollutants. The built in questionnaire module allows us to gather data related to user's health, including past medical history and OSDI Dry Eye questionnaire. To raise user's engagement in the study and provide an information feedback, every user has access to his or her data presented in an easy to understand manner. Both current pollutants in the user's location and his approximate health state are displayed in a simple graph form.ResultsData concerning current air pollutants levels basing on geolocation of the application user (including particulate matter with a mean aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm and 10 μm, ozone, sulfur oxides and volatile organic compounds) and results concerning ocular surface obtained using OSDI Dry Eye questionnaire.ConclusionsThis innovative approach to sharing information in medical research not only raises user's involvement in the study, but also fulfils an educational purpose.