DARE to wear: digital health promotion and disease prevention using wearable devices
Abstract
Global healthcare systems are under increasing strain to ensure long-term sustainability, necessitating a transition towards proactive, preventive healthcare strategies. Wearable sensor technologies are uniquely positioned to facilitate this paradigm shift by allowing continuous physiological and behavioral monitoring, facilitating early risk stratification, and enabling timely interventions. DigitAl lifelong pREvention (DARE) is a nationwide initiative conceived in Italy to develop and evaluate novel digital tools and services aimed at fostering innovative health promotion and disease prevention pathways, with wearable devices identified as a critical enabling technology. Herein, we present a comprehensive overview of 16 investigations designed in DARE to assess the utility of wearable devices in the continuous monitoring of physical activity, joint mobility, sleep, heart rate variability, nutrition, and glucose homeostasis across diverse health domains, including healthy aging, chronic disease prevention, and lifestyle modification programs targeting over 8000 participants. We meticulously detail the methodological characteristics of these study protocols, explicitly outlining the technical specifications, functional capabilities, and inherent limitations of 18 distinct wearable devices (sourced from 12 manufacturers) employed across these trials. The breadth of applications and the heterogeneity of the target populations underscore the significant potential of wearable devices as an integral component of future digital health prevention strategies.
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Authors: Ilaria D’Ascanio, Serena Moscato, Jose Albites-Sanabria, Maria Giulia Bacalini, Marianna Bellafiore, Laura Belli, Lisa Berti, Mohammad Junayed Bhuyan, Elisa Cainelli, Giacomo Cappon, Paolo Caravaggi, Antonella Carbonaro, Barbara Carretti, Nicola Cellini, Stefano Cianfarani, Giorgio Davico, Luca Davoli, Paola di Florio, Marco Domenicali, Andrea Facchinetti, Giuseppina M. Farella, Massimo Federici, Gianluigi Ferrari, Luciano Gamberini, Loreto Gesualdo, Darío Gregori, Alberto Leardini, Raffaele Lodi, Marcello Maggio, Irene Mammarella, Veronica Mattioli, Walter Mazzucco, Sabato Mellone, Luca Menghini, Giovanna Mioni, Merylin Monaro, Silvia Orlandi, Francesco Palmese, Pierpaolo Palumbo, Giovanni Piscopo, Paola Pontrelli, Tiziana Pozzoli, Giulia Rogati, Marco Salvi, Marcello Sicbaldi, Alessandro Silvani, Giovanni Sparacino, Garden Tabacchi, Enrico Toffalini, Luca Vedovelli, Andrea Zangrossi, Luca Palmerini, Lorenzo Chiari
Institutions: University of Bari Aldo Moro, University of Padua, Karolinska Institutet, University of Palermo, Istituti di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, University of Bologna, University of Parma, Ospedale "Santa Maria delle Croci" di Ravenna, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Stockholm University, Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo, Laboratori Guglielmo Marconi (Italy), Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, Azienda-Unita' Sanitaria Locale Di Cesena, Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Azienda Universitaria Ospedaliera Consorziale - Policlinico Bari