JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

In 2022 1.105 billion people use smart wearables and 31 million use Fitbit devices, worldwide. While there is growing evidence for using smart wearables to benefit physical health, more research is required on the application and feasibility of using these devices for mental health and wellbeing. In studies focusing on emotion recognition, inference is often dependent on external cues, which may not always be representative of true emotional state.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of utilizing consumer-grade activity trackers for applications in remote mental health monitoring of older aged persons.

Methods:

Twelve participants enrolled in the study, with 9 returning for the post-procedure interviews. Participants had positive attitudes towards being remotely monitored with 78% (7/9) participants finding it feasible, having experienced no inconvenience through the 4-week procedure period. Six of nine participants (67%) were interested in the full implementation of our prototype, stating that they would feel more at ease knowing that their mental wellbeing was being monitored by their carers remotely.

Results:

Twelve participants enrolled in the study, with 9 returning for the post-procedure interviews. Participants were positive about the procedure with 77.78% (7/9) participants finding it feasible, having experienced no inconvenience through the 4-week procedure period. 66.67% (6/9) participants were interested in the full implementation of our prototype, stating that they would feel more at ease knowing that their mental wellbeing was being monitored by their carers remotely.

Conclusions:

Fitbit-like devices are an unobtrusive tool to collect wearer data without being disruptive or inconvenient. Future research should integrate physiological user inputs to differentiate and predict depressive tendencies in users.