Collecting activity, sleep and geolocation data

OVERVIEW

The aim of this project is to develop methods to collect data on physical activity, sleep, and geolocation from Understanding Society sample members. Participants will in addition be asked to complete a short daily survey asking about their wellbeing. The geolocation data will enable linkage to information about the nature of spaces that people spend time in.

The initial work on this project involved consulting with topic experts and reviewing different technical solutions and suppliers that could collect these data.

We have settled on a solution for which participants are asked to wear a Garmin smartwatch for one month, to collect activity and sleep data. They are also asked to install a mobile app on their smartphone to collect geolocation data. Participants will also use the app to answer a survey at the end of each day for the first ten days.

Outputs

We conducted several consultation workshops with topic experts who use sleep, activity and geolocation data. These workshops helped define priorities for the nature of the data to be collected. These priorities, in turn, informed decisions about the technical solutions that were best suited for our purposes.

• The agenda for the consultation workshops as well as the background information sent to topic experts in advance can be found here.
• Key conclusions from the discussions in the consultation sessions can be found here.

Phase I of the development work involved in-house testing of the Garmin smartwatches and smartphone app. The main aim at this stage was to examine the quality of activity, sleep and geolocation data collected. The findings are reported in:

• McCrorie, P. and Caryl, F. (2025) Garmin Vivoactive 5 – GPS and health data quality. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.

Phase II of development work involved a pilot study. The main aim at this stage was to test the study protocols, ascertain likely participation rates for the different aspects of the study, and obtain feedback from participants about their experiences with the study and how we could have made it easier for them. The findings are reported in:

• Preston, O., Borkowska, M., Jäckle, Burton, J., Poerio, G. and Vine, J. (2025) Report on the pilot for the activity / sleep / geolocation tracker study, Preliminary version, Colchester: University of Essex.

Phase III will involve testing on the Understanding Society Innovation Panel. This stage is still subject to review and funding.