Harnessing the Potential of Wearable Activity Trackers for Heart Failure Self-Care

Abstract

Exercise participation decreases hospital admissions and improves quality of life in HF, and activity tracking devices provide more precise means to assess free-living physical activity and thus enable tailored exercise instruction. Use of activity trackers by cardiac patients for self-monitoring and motivational purposes is associated with increased levels of physical activity and is predictive of disease severity. However, more research is required to establish the feasibility and validity of these devices in HF patients. It is also critical that the devices can be easily used to collect, process and utilise relevant data. Activity trackers have the potential to promote HF self-care because they provide monitoring of physical activity behaviours and the potential to generate habit formation and goal reinforcement, all of which foster physical activity.

Assessment of a Personal Interactive Carbon Monoxide Breath Sensor in People Who Smoke Cigarettes: Single-Arm Cohort Study

“…The approach to CO breath sampling in Beard et al’s study [ 16 ] and this investigation enabled participants to directly link their smoking behavior to their CO values and track their progress over time. The benefit of tracking one’s behavior and progress via self-guided biofeedback, evident here in smoking behavior, is also well documented in other disease states [ 8 - 10 , 44 - 46 ] lending further support to this approach.…”

Rationale and study design of OUTSTEP‐HF: a randomised controlled study to assess the effect of sacubitril/valsartan and enalapril on physical activity measured by accelerometry in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction

“…It provides objective and continuous assessment of daily PA of patients over a long period of time, reflecting the effect of a therapy on PA more accurately than traditional subjective and/or clinical methods. 34 Physical activity assessed by accelerometers in patients with HF correlates well with traditional exercise tests such as 6MWT 35 and CPET in addition to exercise capacity (as determined by peak oxygen consumption) and is predictive of disease severity, . .…”

“…Patient-reported activity questionnaires, diaries/logs, and/or supervised exercise trainings and tests (such as 6MWT) or various treadmill cardiopulmonary exercise tests (CPET) with peak oxygen consumption evaluation are commonly used to evaluate PA and exercise capacity. However, such conventional methods are likely to be subject to personal bias, are mostly qualitative, have poor patient compliance and may not necessarily reflect the full effects of a therapy on a patient's daily PA. 34 Wearable activity-tracking devices are a promising alternative to conventional methods of assessing daily PA and to promote exercise participation in patients with HF. These accelerometer-based devices can continuously track and quantify multiple aspects of daily PA, including duration and frequency of activity, walking (distance covered, number of steps, speed, etc.…”

“…), duration of sedentary and active behaviours, circadian patterns of activity and sleep patterns. 34 The actigraphy device used in the current study (MotionWatch8 ® ) is a small, lightweight, water-resistant device with long battery life and is unobtrusive. It provides objective and continuous assessment of daily PA of patients over a long period of time, reflecting the effect of a therapy on PA more accurately than traditional subjective and/or clinical methods.…”

Can activity monitors predict outcomes in patients with heart failure? A systematic review

“…Whilst there is a great amount of literature on the predictive role of subjectively measured PA in CVD events (31)(32)(33), there is limited literature on the predictive role of objectively measured PA, with only a review looking at the clinical utility of actigraphs in CHF (34). Recognising the significance of actigraphs in the future of cardiovascular medicine, we aim to review the predictive value of actigraphs in CHF patients, as expenditure on this group of CVD patients poses the highest economic burden.…”