Investigator:
Rebecca Spencer, UMass Amherst.
MassAITC Cohort: Year 2 (AD/ADRD)
Easily accessible, user friendly, and validated in-home sleep monitoring technologies are in high research, commercial, and clinical demand for older adults. Monitoring multiple physiological signals in patients’ homes provides a promising opportunity for clinicians to improve treatment outcomes and conveniently access relevant health metrics in older adults. Novel commercial and research grade devices are constantly evolving to meet growing demand from consumers and increase accuracy. To improve accuracy, more and more devices are integrating a wider array of physiological processes (e.g., heart rate, SpO2, ECG). However, scientific validation studies examining the accuracy and performance of these devices is minimal and completely absent in older adults with common chronic conditions and in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s related dementias (AD/ADRD). Yet targeted studies in these groups are necessary given aging- and AD-related changes in gait, mobility, and physiological processes that may decrease the accuracy of devices.
This study seeks to validate sleep detection capabilities of commercially available devices with physiological sensors in a diverse representative sample of older adults with common chronic conditions and a group with AD/ADRD. Device performance will be examined in in-home settings and compared to gold-standard sleep measures (polysomnography – a montage of EEG, EMG, and EOG). Further, with a series of questionnaires, we will identify high-utility device features, barriers to use, and other aspects relevant to improving future device development and compliance in both research and commercial settings. We consider this an essential first step towards deploying devices for health and research.