SMARTPHONE TECHNOLOGY TO MEASURE HEALTH CHARACTERISTICS IN OFFSPRING OF PATIENTS WITH DEMENTIA: THE IVITALITY PROOF-OF-PRINCIPLE STUDY

Cardiovascular risk factors including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia and obesity at midlife have been associated with the development of dementia in later life. Especially offspring of patients wi th dementia -often at middle age themselves- are at risk, having a genetic predisposition and a higher blood pressure in midlife. Large-scale strategies in lowering cardiovascular risk to eventually prevent cognitive decline are needed. The iVitality Proof-Of-Principle (POP) study investigates whether smartphone technology could be used to measure relevant health characteristics in children of patients with dementia, and if this could be a potential strategy for future dementia prevention strategies. We designed a proof-of-principle study with 6 months follow-up in 150 offspring of patients with dementia (> 50 years) to measure home-based blood pressure, cognitive function, physical activity and other lifestyle characteristics through a smartphone application. Data are collected through the built-in smartphone sensors, pop-up tasks and externally coupled blood pressure meters and are automatically transferred to a secured database. Data of the first 33 participants (mean age 58.2 years) show that blood pressure, cognitive function, physical activity and lifestyle patterns can be measured through a smartphone application. Home-based blood pressure measurements are highly correlated with clinic blood pressure measurements (figure 1, R=0.824, p<0.001), and - as expected - significantly lower, illustrating their validity. With increasing complexity of cognitive tests, reaction time to complete the test was higher when assessing the total group, with marked inter-individual differences. Data represent mean values of clinic systolic blood pressure measurements and home-based systolic blood pressure measurements, using a smartphone application. Red dots indicate a high systolic blood pressure.