Physical activity, sleep and cardiovascular health data for 50,000 individuals from the MyHeart Counts Study

Abstract

Studies have established the importance of physical activity and fitness for long-term cardiovascular health, yet limited data exist on the association between objective, real-world large-scale physical activity patterns, fitness, sleep, and cardiovascular health primarily due to difficulties in collecting such datasets. We present data from the MyHeart Counts Cardiovascular Health Study, wherein participants contributed data via an iPhone application built using Apple's ResearchKit framework and consented to make this data available freely for further research applications. In this smartphone-based study of cardiovascular health, participants recorded daily physical activity, completed health questionnaires, and performed a 6-minute walk fitness test. Data from English-speaking participants aged 18 years or older with a US-registered iPhone who agreed to share their data broadly and who enrolled between the study's launch and the time of the data freeze for this data release (March 10 2015-October 28 2015) are now available for further research. It is anticipated that releasing this large-scale collection of real-world physical activity, fitness, sleep, and cardiovascular health data will enable the research community to work collaboratively towards improving our understanding of the relationship between cardiovascular indicators, lifestyle, and overall health, as well as inform mobile health research best practices.

Conflict of interest statement

Dr. McConnell is an employee of Verily Life Sciences LLC. Dr. Harrington is on the board of directors for Scanadu Inc (which is privately held) but reported receiving no consulting fees and reported having stock options with no current value. Megan Doerr is a co-inventor of Cleveland Clinic’s MyFamily (MyLegacy) intellectual property portfolio, licensed to Family Care Path, Inc. As part of this license, Ms. Doerr is entitled to a share in both royalties and returns of equity.

Figures

Fig. 1

Onboarding, flow, and demographics for the MyHeart Counts study. (a) Study design. (b) CONSORT diagram of participant flow through the study. (c) Screenshot of sharing options from the MyHeart Counts app.

Fig. 2

App engagement (as duration in days). (a) Self-reported cardiovascular health: family history of cardiovascular disease (padj = 1.73e-4, diff = 0.23+/−0.13); heart disease (pad = 8.78e-10, diff = 0.56+/−0.18); vascular disease (padj = 1.90e-4, diff = 0.47+/−0.25). (b) Self-reported mental wellbeing: feel worthwhile (pad < 2.20e-16, beta = 0.13+/−0.013); feel happy (padj < 2.2e-16, beta = 0.12+/−0.12); feel worried (padj < 2.2e-16, beta = −0.13+/−0.01); feel depressed (padj < 2.2e-16, beta = −0.094). (c) Perceived risk of cardiovascular disease: perceived 10-year risk (padj,2.2e-16, beta = 0.29+/−0.03); perceived lifetime risk (padj = 3.18e-5, beta = 0.105+/−0.02); perceived 10-year risk compared to others (p = 7.93e-4; beta = 0.079+/−0.02); perceived lifetime risk compared to others (padj = 2.81e-3, beta = 0.079+/−0.02). N = 45,656 participants.

Fig. 3

User engagement with the MyHeart Counts app from date of release (March 2015) to date of study completion (October 28, 2015). (a) Distribution of user participation by number of days they remained in the study. Number of days of core motion data is indicated in cyan; number of days of HealthKit data is indicated in orange; number of days with 6-Minute Walk Test data is indicated in purple; number of days with survey response is indicated in magenta. (b) Number of users who provided app data on each day during the study duration from March 2015 - October 2015. Core Motion data is indicated in cyan; HealthKit data is indicated in orange; 6-Minute Walk Test data is indicated in purple; survey responses are indicated in magenta. (c) Distribution of user participation by number of days they remained in the study. (d) Number of survey responses on each day during the study duration.

Fig. 4

Geographic distribution of 15,578 participants who provided the first three digits of zip codes (self reported) and agreed to broad sharing of information. (a) Number of individuals from each state, ranging from n = 0 in Maryland to n = 2,762 in California. (b) Number of individuals from each state, normalized by state population as of 2015, ranging from 7.71e-6 in Louisiana to 1.45e-2 in New Hampshire. Values are plotted on a log10 scale. Maryland is grey as no participants were enrolled.