October 18, 2023
new studya health technology company Aparito investigated the use of a Garmin fitness tracker to assess sleep quality¹ in individuals with adult-onset idiopathic isolated focal cervical dystonia (AOIFCD). AOIFCD is a neurological disease characterized by involuntary neck spasms that can severely impact sleep. As up to 70% of AOIFCD patients report sleep-related problems, this study aims to provide a more accessible alternative to small-scale polysomnography studies. Researchers sought to gain valuable insight into sleep patterns in AOIFCD patients by assessing sleep architecture using widely available fitness trackers.
Study participants used Garmin vívosmart® 4 fitness trackers and their data upload seamlessly Atom 5™, Aparito’s app, via Garmin Health SDK. This allowed raw data to be collected remotely, reducing time and costs for participants and clinicians compared to clinical studies.
Connecting patients and analysts through Garmin
This study included two cohorts of participants: a group diagnosed with AOIFCD and an age- and gender-matched unaffected control group.Study participant wore her Garmin vívosmart® 4 Fitness tracker continuously records sleep tracking metrics over 7 days. Specifically, total sleep time and time spent in non-REM sleep.Accelerometer and heart rate data1 Recorded via fitness tracker and sent to Oxygen by Aparito app.integration of Garmin Health SDK Connect to vívosmart within the app platform® 4 Connect directly to the app and allow raw accelerometer data collection. This was used to identify daytime sleepiness, and health metrics can now be captured on fitness trackers and then processed within the platform, allowing analysts to compare important raw data. Data supported by patient-reported outcomes (PROs) submitted through the app can then be compared between the two cohorts to identify differences in sleep quality.
research result The authors emphasize the need for clinicians to screen for sleep disorders as part of regular clinical assessments, especially since sleep monitoring may be important for the prevention and management of non-motor symptoms. This study found that regular fitness trackers may help estimate sleep patterns in dystonia patients. Using objective measures (previously done subjectively by asking about sleep quality), researchers confirmed that people with the disease have different sleep patterns compared to healthy people. did. AOIFCD patients had longer sleep duration and more non-REM sleep. This study shows that these sleep changes may be related to problems with specific brain circuits and serotonin activity, which may be related to both motor and sleep problems in dystonia. Suggests. This was the first study to demonstrate this effect using an objective consumer wearable in a clinical setting.
Adapt your Garmin device for further research
Aparito has many upcoming projects utilizing Garmin fitness trackers and metrics. The ability to specifically configure his Garmin devices to suit the varying requirements of each study was key to Aparito when selecting his collaborators. Garmin Health SDK integration enables the Atom5™ platform to do just this, allowing you to customize which health metrics Aparito captures to achieve the most insightful and accurate results .
To learn more about the Aparito project with Garmin, read our article on remote patient monitoring and oncology clinical trial opportunities here. Or, see all studies involving Garmin devices on the Garmin Health Third-Party Study Overview page.
1Garmin smartwatches are not designed or intended to monitor or diagnose any disease or medical condition. Information about metric accuracy can be found here.
