Shah, Amar Jitu;
(2025)
The Use of Wearable Technology in Chronic Respiratory Disease.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
The World Health Organisation has recently recognised a shift towards digital healthcare. Wearable health technology can improve patient self management, healthcare utilisation and reduce patient morbidity and mortality. Chronic lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) have a global prevalence of roughly 400 million and one billion respectively. The main aim of this work was to investigate the utility of a novel wearable device, AcuPebble RE100, in participants with COPD and OSA. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to initially gain a better understanding of the current landscape of wearables in COPD. This identified a gap, where further research was needed to explore the role of wearables in identifying upcoming exacerbations. The next observational cross-sectional study, sought to build an acceptability model to aid future wearable design to maximise patient utility. The primary study used AcuPebble RE100 in a group of stable and exacerbating COPD patients to analyse physiological signal differences between groups. This observational study demonstrated that heart rate variability increased during an exacerbation, while complexity decreased. Respiratory rate variability and complexity increased during an exacerbation and airflow had increased random fluctuations during an exacerbation. These differences could help build future algorithms to detect upcoming exacerbations, resulting in earlier management initiation and improved patient outcomes. Chapter 5 investigated whether AcuPebble SA100 could be used to monitor patients with OSA on continuous positive airway pressure therapy. This study found AcuPebble SA100 in its current state to be less accurate than gold-standard tools. Overall, the work in this thesis will help to inform future studies using wearables in chronic lung disease, to positively impact patient outcomes, and lead to a truly digital respiratory healthcare system.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | The Use of Wearable Technology in Chronic Respiratory Disease |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Medicine |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10212804 |
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