Cloudy with a chance of pain: engagement and subsequent attrition of daily data entry in a smartphone pilot study tracking weather, disease severity, and physical activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
Cloudy with a chance of pain: engagement and subsequent attrition of daily data entry in a smartphone pilot study tracking weather, disease severity, and physical activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
Background: the increasing ownership of smartphones provides major opportunities for epidemiological research through self-reported and passively collected data.
Objective: this pilot study aimed to codesign a smartphone app to assess associations between weather and joint pain in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to study the success of daily self-reported data entry over a 60-day period and the enablers of and barriers to data collection.
Methods: a patient and public involvement group (n=5) and 2 focus groups of patients with RA (n=9) supported the codesign of the app collecting self-reported symptoms. A separate “capture app” was designed to collect global positioning system (GPS) and continuous raw accelerometer data, with the GPS-linking providing local weather data. A total of 20 patients with RA were then recruited to collect daily data for 60 days, with entry and exit interviews. Of these, 17 were loaned an Android smartphone, whereas 3 used their own Android smartphones.
Results: of the 20 patients, 6 (30%) withdrew from the study: 4 because of technical challenges and 2 for health reasons. The mean completion of daily entries was 68% over 2 months. Patients entered data at least five times per week 65% of the time. Reasons for successful engagement included a simple graphical user interface, automated reminders, visualization of data, and eagerness to contribute to this easily understood research question. The main barrier to continuing engagement was impaired battery life due to the accelerometer data capture app. For some, successful engagement required ongoing support in using the smartphones.
Conclusions: this successful pilot study has demonstrated that daily data collection using smartphones for health research is feasible and achievable with high levels of ongoing engagement over 2 months. This result opens important opportunities for large-scale longitudinal epidemiological research.
Reade, Samuel
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Spencer, Karen
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Sergeant, Jamie C.
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Sperrin, Matthew
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Schultz, David M.
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Ainsworth, John
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Lakshminarayana, Rashmi
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Hellman, Bruce
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James, Ben
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McBeth, John
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Sanders, Caroline
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Dixon, William G.
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24 March 2017
Reade, Samuel
34f1984a-255d-4d4c-9386-4a77b36ce612
Spencer, Karen
549eec3d-aed8-4499-9a7d-b28fe517cdcc
Sergeant, Jamie C.
12663aff-2633-432e-a8c4-bedfbe1a35a6
Sperrin, Matthew
e1dd5334-ed19-48c7-b486-024fb03330ba
Schultz, David M.
a85d5745-d1be-42fd-a4a8-45122ee5a243
Ainsworth, John
918fb181-9b71-4eb5-9df6-4f3d765e4498
Lakshminarayana, Rashmi
549690be-3dee-4cfe-b0b9-e3d5108f7b38
Hellman, Bruce
7ec8ca35-8c4f-4607-98e3-de47c9665230
James, Ben
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McBeth, John
98012716-66ba-480b-9e43-ac53b51dce61
Sanders, Caroline
1121a9ec-e719-489a-9ffd-ae8cb6e49a78
Dixon, William G.
8fcb2256-4094-4f58-9777-4248ad245166
Reade, Samuel, Spencer, Karen, Sergeant, Jamie C., Sperrin, Matthew, Schultz, David M., Ainsworth, John, Lakshminarayana, Rashmi, Hellman, Bruce, James, Ben, McBeth, John, Sanders, Caroline and Dixon, William G.
(2017)
Cloudy with a chance of pain: engagement and subsequent attrition of daily data entry in a smartphone pilot study tracking weather, disease severity, and physical activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 5 (3), [e37].
(doi:10.2196/mhealth.6496).
Abstract
Background: the increasing ownership of smartphones provides major opportunities for epidemiological research through self-reported and passively collected data.
Objective: this pilot study aimed to codesign a smartphone app to assess associations between weather and joint pain in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to study the success of daily self-reported data entry over a 60-day period and the enablers of and barriers to data collection.
Methods: a patient and public involvement group (n=5) and 2 focus groups of patients with RA (n=9) supported the codesign of the app collecting self-reported symptoms. A separate “capture app” was designed to collect global positioning system (GPS) and continuous raw accelerometer data, with the GPS-linking providing local weather data. A total of 20 patients with RA were then recruited to collect daily data for 60 days, with entry and exit interviews. Of these, 17 were loaned an Android smartphone, whereas 3 used their own Android smartphones.
Results: of the 20 patients, 6 (30%) withdrew from the study: 4 because of technical challenges and 2 for health reasons. The mean completion of daily entries was 68% over 2 months. Patients entered data at least five times per week 65% of the time. Reasons for successful engagement included a simple graphical user interface, automated reminders, visualization of data, and eagerness to contribute to this easily understood research question. The main barrier to continuing engagement was impaired battery life due to the accelerometer data capture app. For some, successful engagement required ongoing support in using the smartphones.
Conclusions: this successful pilot study has demonstrated that daily data collection using smartphones for health research is feasible and achievable with high levels of ongoing engagement over 2 months. This result opens important opportunities for large-scale longitudinal epidemiological research.
Text
mhealth-2017-3-e37
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Accepted/In Press date: 23 November 2016
Published date: 24 March 2017
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Local EPrints ID: 491458
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/491458
ISSN: 2291-5222
PURE UUID: 8297a927-90cd-4843-9aac-5510d6deba3e
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Date deposited: 24 Jun 2024 16:54
Last modified: 25 Jun 2024 02:10
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Contributors
Author:
Samuel Reade
Author:
Karen Spencer
Author:
Jamie C. Sergeant
Author:
Matthew Sperrin
Author:
David M. Schultz
Author:
John Ainsworth
Author:
Rashmi Lakshminarayana
Author:
Bruce Hellman
Author:
Ben James
Author:
John McBeth
Author:
Caroline Sanders
Author:
William G. Dixon
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