2.    What measures will be collected?

 

If you agree to take part in this study, your sleep and physical activity patterns will be recorded using the Oura ring, while you go about your usual daily life. You will be required to complete a set of web-based questionnaires at the briefing visit and a reduced set every 3-monthly, an electronic time use diary for a two-week period once every 3 months, and brief daily surveys on your smartphone. Interactions with your smartphone, your daily movement patterns, as well as your interactions with your NUS work communication channels (email timestamps and message IDs only) will be monitored. Your cardiovascular health (blood pressure and arterial stiffness) will also be assessed using a non-invasive cuff-based system (SphygmoCor XCEL). Body composition measurements will also be taken using a body composition analyzer (InBody 770). 

 

Briefing visit

 

Eligible participants will be scheduled for an in-person, informed consent/device collection/physiological assessments session that will take place on-campus (~2 hrs). Participants should wear long pants or leggings for this session (no dresses or jeans as this will hinder optimal arterial stiffness measurements). Please also refrain from eating, drinking caffeine, smoking or consuming alcohol 1h before your session. 

 

Following informed consent, you will collect a sleep + activity tracker (Oura ring) and install 3 smartphone apps 1) Oura client; 2) Ecological Momentary Assessment [Z4IP]; and 3) Smartphone Touchscreen Interactions [QuantActions TapCounter]) which you will use to log sleep and wellbeing data throughout the study period. Step-by-step guides will be provided to you on the use of the wearable and applications and research staff will be present on-site to troubleshoot any issues. After device collection and app installation, the following non-invasive physiological measures will be taken from you: 1) blood pressure; 2) height and weight; 3) body composition; 4) arterial stiffness. After these assessments, you will be asked to complete a series of web-based (Qualtrics) questionnaires on sleep, physical activity patterns, work habits and wellbeing before leaving.Demographic data such as biological sex, ethnicity, faculty/department and date of birth will also be collected for us to understand sample representativeness and generalizability of our findings. 

 

Data collection – 1 year (52 weeks) 

 

You are expected to commit to providing at least 80% of data per week (including wearing and synchronizing the wearable) over the 1 year (52 weeks).

 

For the first 6 weeks, we will closely monitor cloud-based dashboards for the 3 smartphone apps daily to ensure that you are able to collect data at home, and charge/sync your Oura ring. Apart from issues with your device/app, participants who cannot meet the study’s requirements (at least 80% of Oura + EMA + QuantActions) per week in the first 6 weeks will be dropped from the study. 

 

Following this period, participants who do not complete these requirements will be sent study reminders. If they become uncontactable or start to harass study staff, they may also be dropped from the study. Participants who have dropped out/withdrawn their study participation will be requested to uninstall these apps. This will be done at the ring return visit. Otherwise, participants who have completed the study will be requested to uninstall these apps at study completion. 

  

Sleep and Physical Activity Monitoring (Oura ring and companion app)

 

The Oura ring is a device worn on the finger which non-invasively records movement, heart rate and temperature to infer sleep and activity patterns throughout the day. During the study, you will need to charge the ring and sync this to a mobile app. Data will be accessible to the research team through a web-based API.

 

For the first 6 weeks, the Oura app will only display limited information. After the first 6 weeks, you will have access to full functionality of the Oura app; more detailed sleep and health measures will be provided and explained.  In addition, sleep coaching, relaxing stories, breathing exercises and mindfulness exercises will be available for use.

 

Participants will sign a separate loan form for the collection of the Oura ring. Lost/damaged rings during the study may be replaced subject to sizing availability, should participants choose to continue on in the study. 

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Periodic Questionnaires (~5 min, every 3 months)

A set of wellbeing questionnaires will be administered four times throughout the study period (Month 3, Month 6, Month 9 and Month 12). These will measure perceptions about your stress and wellbeing, as well as any significant life events that have occurred in the past 3 months. 

 

Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA; Z4IP app)

 

• Daily Surveys (~5 min/day x 7 days x 52 weeks)  

You will receive daily app notifications at the end of each day (between 8pm and midnight) asking about your mood/wellbeing. Please take your time and reflect on your feelings from the day. Try to avoid giving the same answers each day. 

 

• 3-monthly Time-Use Diaries (~5 min/day x 14 days, every 3 months)  

You will also be asked to fill out a menu-driven, time-use diary for a 2-week stretch at the start of the study and every 3 months (Month 1, Month 3, Month 6, Month 9 and Month 12), indicating the activities you engaged in during each day.

 

Smartphone Touchscreen Interactions (QuantActions app)

 

Phone use and tapping speed will be tracked automatically through a smartphone app (QuantActions; this app is compliant with EU­GDPR, the European Union’s strict privacy regulations). 

 

On Android devices, this application records the time of touches or swipes made your phone, and the name of the active app. For iOS devices, this information is only collected when a dedicated QuantActions Keyboard app is selected as the keyboard during text entry. 

 

To maintain your privacy, no text, pictures, contacts, or any personal identifying information will be recorded. Data collected will be stored using codes only; names or emails will not be collected. 

 

Movement Patterns

 

The Z4IP app will determine the timing, duration and distance you travel each day, based on the phone’s sensors.  Because we are interested in how much you travel rather than where you travel, your specific geospatial location is not recorded. The data is held on secure servers without collection of personal identifying information. 

 

NUS E-Services

 

Only timestamps of NUS emails and message IDs (for thread linking purposes) will be extracted and analysed. We will not access content or personal information involved in these interactions. Employment-level variables (Domain/Department/Category, Job Grade (e.g. Senior/Middle/Junior Management, Professional, Support) and leave dates will also be extracted from the NUS database through your NUS staff ID provided. Your NUS staff ID will be replaced by a code number once we have extracted all study-related information from the relevant departments (with approval). NUS staff IDs will be deleted from our system upon study completion.