Patient Acceptability and Technical Reliability of Wearable Devices Used for Monitoring People With Parkinson Disease: Survey Study.

BACKGROUND

Parkinson disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with complex motor and nonmotor symptoms. To assess these, clinical assessments are completed, providing a snapshot of a person's experience. Monitoring Parkinson disease using wearable devices can provide continuous and objective data and capture information on movement patterns in daily life.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study is to assess patient acceptability and technical reliability of 2 wearable devices used in clinical trials (ActivInsights and Axivity AX3).

METHODS

Participants in a feasibility study testing a self-management toolkit (PD-Care) optionally wore a wearable device for 1 week, providing feedback through an open- and closed-question survey conducted over the telephone about the acceptability of wearing the device. The closed questions used a Likert scale from 1 to 5 (with 1=strongly agree and 5=strongly disagree) asking whether (1) the device was comfortable to wear, (2) the device was easy to put on, (3) the device was easy to wear, (4) the device was embarrassing to wear, and (5) if they were happy to wear the device for longer than 7 days. Differences in acceptability between devices were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U tests and Wilcoxon matched pairs signed rank tests. These were followed by open-ended questions asking (1) How did you find wearing the device? (2) How did you find putting the device on? (3) Did you take it off and why? (4) What was your overall impression? (5) Did you prefer the wrist- or trunk-worn device and why (Axivity AX3 only)?

RESULTS

A total of 22 of 32 (69%) participants offered the device agreed to wear it. There were no significant differences in the demographic characteristics between those monitored and those who chose not to be. Acceptance with both devices was generally good. The ActivInsights device was more acceptable than the wrist- and trunk-worn Axivity AX3 devices, as more participants found it to be comfortable (n=15, 100% vs n=5, 71%; P=.02 and n=4, 57%; P=.004, respectively), easy to wear (n=15, 100% vs n=6, 86%; P=.048 and n=3, 43%; P=.004, respectively) and would wear for more than 7 days (n=13, 87% vs n=4, 57%; P=.02 and n=1, 14%; P<.001, respectively). The trunk-worn Axivity AX3 device had the lowest acceptance rates, but there were no statistical differences in acceptability between the wrist- and trunk-worn Axivity AX3 devices (all P>.05). There were issues with battery life and recording errors in 3 of 14 (21%) Axivity AX3 devices and upload failures in 3 of 15 (20%) ActivInsights devices.

CONCLUSIONS

Acceptability of wearables for monitoring Parkinson was satisfactory, especially when wrist-worn, although a few participants experienced difficulties in correct use, and there were some errors with the data upload.