Tracking biomarkers related to post-traumatic outcomes via a wrist-worn wearable. A January study published in JAMA Psychiatry (full text) monitored 2,021 participants who experienced traumatic stress exposure, mainly from car accidents but also physical assault, sexual assault, serious falls, and a mass casualty incident. 

The Advancing Understanding of Recovery After Trauma (AURORA) study examined adverse posttraumatic neuropsychiatric outcomes after traumatic stress exposure, especially among socioeconomically disadvantaged patients. Qualifying patients used the (Alphabet) Verily Life Sciences’ Study Watch for a minimum of 21 hours a day over the eight-week tracking period, starting with screening and qualification in the emergency department (ED). 

• Participants used smartphones to complete a rotating battery of questionnaires consisting of 10 common adverse post-traumatic neuropsychiatric sequelae (APNS) symptom domains: pain, depressive symptoms, sleep discontinuity, nightmares, somatic symptoms, difficulty with concentration, thinking, or fatigue, avoidance of trauma reminders, trauma reexperiencing, anxiety, and hyperarousal.
• Using the wearable’s accelerometer feature, it monitored eight significant biomarkers for pain, sleep, and anxiety. A reduction in 24-hour activity variance was associated with greater pain severity. Six others were associated with rest-activity measures indicative of changes in pain over time and one with repeated sleep-wake disruption indicative of changes in pain, sleep, and anxiety.

Depending on the data plus self-reporting on the questionnaires, the patient could be recovering or worsening post-event. The study concluded that “wrist-wearable device biomarkers may have utility as screening tools for pain, sleep, and anxiety symptom outcomes after trauma exposure in high-risk populations.” This Editor notes that over time, wearable monitoring was coupled with plentiful subjective information.

The group was selected from an initial 19,019 patient pool drawn from 27 emergency departments. 3,040 patients met the study criteria including being within 72 hours of the trauma, aged 18 to 65 years, and were able to speak and read English. They also provided informed consent and completed baseline assessments for a final completion group of 2,021. Most of the participants were female, half of the study were African American, 34% were white and 11% were Hispanic. Nearly 80% of the study did not have a college degree, while 64% earned $35,000 per year or less. The study was headed by a team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Also Mobihealthnews