An openly available wearable, a diaper cover, monitors infant's respiration and position during rest and sleep

Abstract

Abstract Aim To describe and test the accuracy of respiratory rate assessment in long‐term surveillance using an open‐source infant wearable, NAPping PAnts (NAPPA). Methods We recorded 24 infants aged 1–9 months using our newly developed infant wearable that is a diaper cover with an integrated programmable electronics with accelerometer and gyroscope sensors. The sensor collects child's respiration rate (RR), activity and body posture in 30‐s epochs, to be downloaded afterwards into a mobile phone application. An automated RR quality measure was also implemented using autocorrelation function, and the accuracy of RR estimate was compared with a reference obtained from the simultaneously recorded capnography signal that was part of polysomnography recordings. Results Altogether 88 h 27 min of data were recorded, and 4147 epochs (39% of all data) were accepted after quality detection. The median of patient wise mean absolute errors in RR estimates was 1.5 breaths per minute (interquartile range 1.1–2.6 bpm), and the Blandt‐Altman analysis indicated an RR bias of 0.0 bpm with the 95% limits of agreement of −5.7–5.7 bpm. Conclusion Long‐term monitoring of RR and posture can be done with reasonable accuracy in out‐of‐hospital settings using NAPPA, an openly available infant wearable.