Wearable Mental Health Tracking: You-Track
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Use of a wearable fitness tracker to monitor and promote mental health, recovery, physical activity, and sleep in depression
IRAS ID
264364
Contact name
Chris Griffiths
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
YOUTRACK1, YOUTRACK1
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 1 days
Research summary
A Fitbit Charge 3 looks like a wrist watch and is CE marked as a wireless activity tracker; it can be purchased by anyone. The Fitbit measures activity (steps), movement and heart rate, and using algorithms, provides reports on sleep. Data is viewed through a dashboard or app on a phone or computer and can be shared via the internet with a healthcare provider. Fitbit has been used in twice as many validation studies and 10 times as many clinical trial studies as other brands (Henriksen et al. 2018).
Low levels of activity or sedation are linked to depression (Schuch et al. 2017). Furthermore, short and long sleep duration is associated with increased risk of depression in adults (Zhai et al. 2015). More than 9 hours and less than 7 hours are considered unhealthy durations of sleep (Badr et al. 2015). Moreover, sleep stage alternations can be linked to depression (Steiger & Pawlowski, 2019).
Fitbit activity and sleep measures may from an objective measure of depression and recovery, be employed to enhance health self-management, and allow early detection of decline in mental health (enabling action to be taken). Using a Fitbit may enable a person to improve their activity level and sleep hygiene, and therefore their health and wellbeing.
People diagnosed with treatment resistant depression (TRD) referred to Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s Neuromodulation Centre will be invited to take part and be offered a Fitbit Charge 3. We will correlate change on Fitbit measures of sleep, activity, and heart rate with measures of anxiety, recovery, cognition and depression. In addition we will gain participant and staff feedback. We aim to understand how Fitbit data is related to clinical measures at baseline, after treatment and overtime, and the value, feasibility and acceptability of using the Fitbit in clinical practice.REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/NW/0272
Date of REC Opinion
26 Apr 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion