Remote Monitoring of Activity, Location, and Exertion Levels

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a platform that would assist the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the scientific community at large, in the generation of a human activity and energy expenditure database of sufficient detail to accurately predict human exposures and dose to various pollutants. The monitoring system developed is easily extendable to the collection of other health-related data. Our protocol tested the use of a digital voice recorder to collect activity/location diary data assuming it to be a less burdensome and a more reliable method than using paper and pencil diaries or hand-held computers. We expected the data to be more complete and reliable than retrospective reports (diaries filled out at the end of day) because the recorders are easy to use, the diary entries are made as the events occur, and we expected that participants would be more likely to complete the study because of the reduced burden. The data collection plan was also expected to show that the cost of the transcription of the diary can be reduced substantially by using speech and language processing to translate the digital diaries into the EPA’s Comprehensive Human Activity Database (CHAD).