JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are one of the main causes of mortality, and early detection of exacerbations is thus essential. Telemedicine solutions have shown promising results regarding the detection of exacerbations in COPD and have increasingly been used. However, the effect of telemedicine is divergent. According to several studies, respiration rate (RR) increases before, during, and after an exacerbation and the change is measurable with several contactless devices. Despite this, RR is rarely measured, and telemedicine solutions only utilize wearable devices for measuring RR, even though wearable respiratory monitoring devices have been associated with certain drawbacks. Contactless devices are often utilized during sleep as measurements conducted during sleep minimize the risk of disturbance from physical activities. However, the potential of measuring RR and heart rate (HR) during sleep for the detection of exacerbations in COPD remain unclear.

Objective:

The aim of this observational study is to investigate whether contactless measurement of RR, HR, and sleep patterns can be used to detect exacerbations in people with COPD.

Methods:

An observational study including 50 participants with COPD will be conducted. The participants reside in Aalborg municipality, located in the Northern Denmark Region. Participants will use a contactless monitor (Sleepiz One+) near their bed during sleep for a period of four months. After data collection, descriptive statistics will be employed to identify any extremes or variations in RR, HR, or sleep patterns in the nights preceding an exacerbation. Correlation analysis will be used to evaluate the relationship between the number of exacerbations and extremes or variations in RR, HR, or sleep patterns. Finally, qualitative interviews will be conducted with 12 participants to explore their experiences of sleeping with the monitor nearby.

Results:

Recruitment started at the end of April 2024. The results are expected to provide insight into the potential for identifying extremes or variations in RR, HR, or sleep patterns in the days preceding an exacerbation. Additionally, the results are expected to assess the correlation between the number of exacerbations and extremes or variations in RR, HR, and sleep patterns.

Conclusions:

The findings from this study may clarify the possibility of using a contactless monitor to detect exacerbations in COPD. Furthermore, the results may have the potential to improve the ability to predict exacerbations in the future.