Factors Affecting the Quality of Person-Generated Wearable Device Data and Associated Challenges: Rapid Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: There is increasing interest in reusing person-generated wearable device data for research purposes, which raises concerns about data quality. However, the amount of literature on data quality challenges, specifically those for person-generated wearable device data, is sparse.

Objective: This study aims to systematically review the literature on factors affecting the quality of person-generated wearable device data and their associated intrinsic data quality challenges for research.

Methods: The literature was searched in the PubMed, Association for Computing Machinery, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and Google Scholar databases by using search terms related to wearable devices and data quality. By using PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, studies were reviewed to identify factors affecting the quality of wearable device data. Studies were eligible if they included content on the data quality of wearable devices, such as fitness trackers and sleep monitors. Both research-grade and consumer-grade wearable devices were included in the review. Relevant content was annotated and iteratively categorized into semantically similar factors until a consensus was reached. If any data quality challenges were mentioned in the study, those contents were extracted and categorized as well.

Results: A total of 19 papers were included in this review. We identified three high-level factors that affect data quality-device- and technical-related factors, user-related factors, and data governance-related factors. Device- and technical-related factors include problems with hardware, software, and the connectivity of the device; user-related factors include device nonwear and user error; and data governance-related factors include a lack of standardization. The identified factors can potentially lead to intrinsic data quality challenges, such as incomplete, incorrect, and heterogeneous data. Although missing and incorrect data are widely known data quality challenges for wearable devices, the heterogeneity of data is another aspect of data quality that should be considered for wearable devices. Heterogeneity in wearable device data exists at three levels: heterogeneity in data generated by a single person using a single device (within-person heterogeneity); heterogeneity in data generated by multiple people who use the same brand, model, and version of a device (between-person heterogeneity); and heterogeneity in data generated from multiple people using different devices (between-person heterogeneity), which would apply especially to data collected under a bring-your-own-device policy.

Conclusions: Our study identifies potential intrinsic data quality challenges that could occur when analyzing wearable device data for research and three major contributing factors for these challenges. As poor data quality can compromise the reliability and accuracy of research results, further investigation is needed on how to address the data quality challenges of wearable devices.

Keywords: data accuracy; data quality; fitness trackers; mobile phone; patient generated health data; wearable device.

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

©Sylvia Cho, Ipek Ensari, Chunhua Weng, Michael G Kahn, Karthik Natarajan. Originally published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 19.03.2021.

Figures

Figure 1

Flow diagram of the literature selection process. ACM: Association for Computing Machinery; IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Figure 2

Data heterogeneity on three levels.