Remote monitoring platforms based on advanced health sensors have the potential to become important tools during the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting the reduction in risks for affected populations such as the elderly. Current commercially available wearable devices still have limitations to deal with heart rate variability (HRV), an important health indicator of human aging. This study analyzes the role of a remote monitoring system designed to support health services to older people during the complete course of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, since its beginning in Brazil in March 2020 until November 2021, based on HRV. Using different levels of analysis and data, we validated HRV parameters by comparing them with reference sensors and tools in HRV measurements. We compared the results obtained for the cardiac modulation data in time domain using samples of 10 elderly people’s HRV data from Fitbit Inspire HR with the results provided by Kubios for the same population using a cardiac belt, with the data divided into train and test, where 75% of the data were used for training the models, with the remaining 25% as a test set for evaluating the final performance of the models. The results show that there is very little difference between the results obtained by the remote monitoring system compared with Kubios, indicating that the data obtained from these devices might provide accurate results in evaluating HRV in comparison with gold standard devices. We conclude that the application of the methods and techniques used and reported in this study are useful for the creation and validation of HRV indicators in time series obtained by means of wearable devices based on photoplethysmography sensors; therefore, they can be incorporated into remote monitoring processes as seen during the pandemic.

Introduction Sarcopenia is a highly prevalent muscle dysfunction among older adults and is associated with adverse events. The periodic monitoring enables an early screening of patients at risk and control of the progression of muscle impairment. Wearable devices have been used as clinical support for sarcopenia detection. Therefore, this review aims to identify how wearable devices have been used to screen sarcopenia. Methods and analyses Searches will be conducted from August 2023 on PubMed, CINHAL, Embase, Web of Science and SciELO databases. We will include cross-sectional and/or baseline data from prospective studies reporting the use of wearable devices to investigate sarcopenia. Studies that discuss only the development of algorithms or applications for the assessment of sarcopenia or unavailable full texts will be excluded. The main reviewer will conduct the initial search and exclusion of duplicates, while two independent reviewers will select studies, extract data and assess the methodological quality using the Appraisal tool for Cross-sectional Studies. Ethics and dissemination No previous ethical approval is required for this review. The findings of this review will be submitted to a scientific journal and disclosed at international scientific conferences. PROSPERO registration number CRD42022356040.

BACKGROUND Countries have focused research on developing strategies to fight COVID-19, prevent hospitalizations, and maintain economic activities. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to establish a survival analysis and identify risk factors for patients with COVID-19 in a upper middle-income city in Brazil. METHODS We performed a retrospective cohort study with 280 hospitalized patients with COVID-19. The eCOVID platform provided data used to monitor COVID-19 cases and help communication between professionals. RESULTS Survival analysis showed that age ≥ 65 years was associated with decreased survival (54.8%). Females had lower survival rate than males (p=0.01). Regarding risk factors, urea concentration (p<0.001), hospital LOS (p=0.002), oxygen concentration (p=0.005), and age (p=0.02) were associated with death. CONCLUSION Age, hospital LOS, high blood urea concentration, and low oxygen concentration were associated with death by COVID-19 in the studied population. These findings corroborate with studies conducted in research centers worldwide. Key Findings Some parameters assessed during hospital admission may identify patients with COVID-19 with high risk of progressing to severe conditions and early identification of risk factors and continuous monitoring of laboratory tests may prevent progression to severe disease. Key Implications Knowledge regarding main signs and symptoms of COVID-19 and associated risk factors helps the population manage and monitor the disease at home and identify early signs of severity. Also, more information about COVID-19, such as prevalence, specific characteristics in certain regions, and treatments, must become public to encourage the population to participate in the control and contingency of the pandemic.

Resumo: Introdução: O envelhecimento está associado a mudanças no padrão do sono e na composição corporal, que impactam à saúde e à qualidade de vida, por estarem relacionadas a diversas doenças, declínio funcional e fragilidade. Estudos têm proposto a correlação entre essas variáveis. No entanto, esses estudos utilizaram questionários de sono subjetivos. Objetivou-se analisar a associação entre parâmetros objetivos do sono estimados por meio de dispositivos vestíveis (DV) e medidas antropométricas em pessoas idosas comunitárias. Método: 70 indivíduos foram monitorados por um período de 7 dias, através de um DV do tipo smartwatch. Foram estimados os parâmetros de sono: tempo total, latência, eficiência e estágios do sono. As medidas antropométricas incluíram: peso, altura, circunferência abdominal (CA), circunferência da panturrilha (CP) e índice de massa corporal (IMC). O teste de correlação de Sperman foi utilizado para verificar a correlação entre o sono e as medidas antropométricas. Resultados: Observou-se correlação positiva significativa (p<0,05) entre estágio leve e a variável peso e correlações negativas entre estágio de sono REM e as variáveis peso, IMC e CA. No entanto, não foi encontrado relação entre as demais variáveis analisadas. Conclusão: Usando dados objetivos do sono, encontrou-se evidências de correlações entre variáveis do sono e medidas antroprométricas. Palavras-chave: Dispositivos vestíveis. Saúde Móvel. Internet das Coisas. Qualidade do Sono.

Resumo: o uso de tecnologias vestíveis para detecção de movimento permite quantificar objetivamente o nível de atividade física em idosos com uma maior precisão, diminuindo viéses de registro ou de memória observados em questionários. Objetivo: verificar a presença de associações e concordância entre as medidas de classificação do nível de atividade física em idosos comunitários obtidas pelo Questionário Internacional de Atividade Física (IPAQ) e por um algoritmo desenvolvido através de dados de sensores de smartwatches. Método: trata-se de um estudo do tipo observacional, com caráter transversal. Um algoritmo foi desenvolvido em linguagem de programação Phyton para identificar os minutos ativos e gerar classificações do nível de atividade física a partir de dados provenientes de smartwatches. A amostra foi composta por 56 idosos avaliados através do smartwatches, que monitorou a atividade física durante 7 dias, e em seguida, pelo IPAQ. Resultados: não houve correlação significativa entre os dados de minutos ativos totais e minutos gastos em atividades moderadas e vigorosas. Entretanto, foi observada uma associação e concordância significativa entre o algoritmo e o índice de passos (κ=0,250; p<0,05). Conclusão: os smartwatches podem ser empregados como uma alternativa nas estratégias de acompanhamento dos níveis de atividade física em idosos.