Usability of a low-cost wearable health device for physical activity and sleep duration in healthy adults

For public health and epidemiology, an understanding of physical activity and sleep duration is important. People found decreased physical activity and short sleep duration as they aged. The development of healthy behaviors in the early life will ensure a better quality of late life. Innovated health devices, such as wearable sensors may provide a solution for monitoring and developing healthy behaviors. In this study, we aimed to explore the usability of a simple, low-cost wearable health device, Mi, for physical activity and sleep duration in healthy adults. Participants were asked to wear the Mi on their non-dominant wrist for seven consecutive days. The total walking steps and sleep time were recorded. We found that the male participants walk more, in particular young adults. As for sleep duration, the female participants sleep more, especially adults. In addition, participants revealed they could tolerate wearing the Mi all day long including at night. This study demonstrated the usability of the wearable health device for continuously recording of physical activity and sleep duration. It is hoping that the wearable health devices can be used for everyone and everywhere to promote health.