Wearable Activity Trackers for Monitoring Adherence to Home Confinement During the COVID-19 Pandemic Worldwide: Data Aggregation and Analysis

Abstract

Background In the context of home confinement during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, objective, real-time data are needed to assess populations’ adherence to home confinement to adapt policies and control measures accordingly. Objective The aim of this study was to determine whether wearable activity trackers could provide information regarding users' adherence to home confinement policies because of their capacity for seamless and continuous monitoring of individuals’ natural activity patterns regardless of their location. Methods We analyzed big data from individuals using activity trackers (Withings) that count the wearer’s average daily number of steps in a number of representative nations that adopted different modalities of restriction of citizens’ activities. Results Data on the number of steps per day from over 740,000 individuals around the world were analyzed. We demonstrate the physical activity patterns in several representative countries with total, partial, or no home confinement. The decrease in steps per day in regions with strict total home confinement ranged from 25% to 54%. Partial lockdown (characterized by social distancing measures such as school closures, bar and restaurant closures, and cancellation of public meetings but without strict home confinement) does not appear to have a significant impact on people’s activity compared to the pre-pandemic period. The absolute level of physical activity under total home confinement in European countries is around twofold that in China. In some countries, such as France and Spain, physical activity started to gradually decrease even before official commitment to lockdown as a result of initial less stringent restriction orders or self-quarantine. However, physical activity began to increase again in the last 2 weeks, suggesting a decrease in compliance with confinement orders. Conclusions Aggregate analysis of activity tracker data with the potential for daily updates can provide information regarding adherence to home confinement policies.