Khaliq, K.A. orcid.org/0000-0003-3582-9313, Noakes, C. orcid.org/0000-0003-3084-7467, Kemp, A.H. et al. (2 more authors) (2023) Evaluating the Performance of Wearable Devices for Contact Tracing in Care Home Environments. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. ISSN 1545-9624
Abstract
COVID-19 has had a devastating impact worldwide, including in care homes where there have been substantial numbers of cases among a very vulnerable population. A key mechanism for managing exposure to the virus and targeting interventions is contact tracing. Unfortunately, environments such as care homes which were most catastrophically impacted by COVID-19 are also those least amenable to traditional contact tracing. A promising alternative to recall and smartphone-based contact tracing approaches is the use of discrete wearable devices that exploit Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Long-Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) technologies. However, the real-world performance of these devices in the context of contact tracing is uncertain. A series of experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of a wearables system which is based on BLE and LoRaWAN technologies. In each experiment, the number of successful contacts was recorded and the physical distance between two contacts was compared to a calculated distance using the Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) to determine the precision, error rate and duration of proximity. The overall average system contact detection success rate was measured as 75.5%; when wearables were used as per the manufacturer’s guidelines the contact detection success rate increased to 81.5%, but when obstructed by everyday objects such as clothing or inside a bag the contact detection success rate was only 64.2%. The calculated distance using RSSI was close to the physical distance in absence of obstacles. However, in the presence of typical obstacles found in care home settings, reliability of detection decreased, and the calculated distance usually appeared far from the actual contact point. The results suggest that under real-world conditions there may be a large proportion of contacts that are underestimated or undetected.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This item is protected by copyright. This is an author produced version of an article published in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Bluetooth, COVID-19, digital devices, LoRaWAN, sensors, wearables |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Civil Engineering (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NIHR National Inst Health Research NIHR132197 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 09 Aug 2023 12:19 |
Last Modified: | 04 Aug 2024 00:13 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Taylor and Francis |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/15459624.2023.2241522 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:202290 |