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Sahu KS, Dubin JA, Majowicz SE, Liu S, Morita PP. Revealing the Mysteries of Population Mobility Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada: Comparative Analysis With Internet of Things-Based Thermostat Data and Google Mobility Insights. JMIR Public Health Surveill 2024; 10:e46903. [PMID: 38506901 PMCID: PMC10993118 DOI: 10.2196/46903] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2023] [Revised: 09/27/2023] [Accepted: 01/03/2024] [Indexed: 03/21/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated public health policies to limit human mobility and curb infection spread. Human mobility, which is often underestimated, plays a pivotal role in health outcomes, impacting both infectious and chronic diseases. Collecting precise mobility data is vital for understanding human behavior and informing public health strategies. Google's GPS-based location tracking, which is compiled in Google Mobility Reports, became the gold standard for monitoring outdoor mobility during the pandemic. However, indoor mobility remains underexplored. OBJECTIVE This study investigates in-home mobility data from ecobee's smart thermostats in Canada (February 2020 to February 2021) and compares it directly with Google's residential mobility data. By assessing the suitability of smart thermostat data, we aim to shed light on indoor mobility patterns, contributing valuable insights to public health research and strategies. METHODS Motion sensor data were acquired from the ecobee "Donate Your Data" initiative via Google's BigQuery cloud platform. Concurrently, residential mobility data were sourced from the Google Mobility Report. This study centered on 4 Canadian provinces-Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, and British Columbia-during the period from February 15, 2020, to February 14, 2021. Data processing, analysis, and visualization were conducted on the Microsoft Azure platform using Python (Python Software Foundation) and R programming languages (R Foundation for Statistical Computing). Our investigation involved assessing changes in mobility relative to the baseline in both data sets, with the strength of this relationship assessed using Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients. We scrutinized daily, weekly, and monthly variations in mobility patterns across the data sets and performed anomaly detection for further insights. RESULTS The results revealed noteworthy week-to-week and month-to-month shifts in population mobility within the chosen provinces, aligning with pandemic-driven policy adjustments. Notably, the ecobee data exhibited a robust correlation with Google's data set. Examination of Google's daily patterns detected more pronounced mobility fluctuations during weekdays, a trend not mirrored in the ecobee data. Anomaly detection successfully identified substantial mobility deviations coinciding with policy modifications and cultural events. CONCLUSIONS This study's findings illustrate the substantial influence of the Canadian stay-at-home and work-from-home policies on population mobility. This impact was discernible through both Google's out-of-house residential mobility data and ecobee's in-house smart thermostat data. As such, we deduce that smart thermostats represent a valid tool for facilitating intelligent monitoring of population mobility in response to policy-driven shifts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kirti Sundar Sahu
- School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
| | - Joel A Dubin
- Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
| | - Shannon E Majowicz
- School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
| | - Sam Liu
- School of Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
| | - Plinio P Morita
- School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
- Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Research Institute of Aging, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
- Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
- eHealth Innovation, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
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Gaston SA, Singh R, Jackson CL. The need to study the role of sleep in climate change adaptation, mitigation, and resiliency strategies across the life course. Sleep 2023; 46:zsad070. [PMID: 36913312 PMCID: PMC10334480 DOI: 10.1093/sleep/zsad070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2023] [Indexed: 03/14/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Symielle A Gaston
- Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Rupsha Singh
- Division of Intramural Research, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Chandra L Jackson
- Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
- Division of Intramural Research, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD, USA
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Bragazzi NL, Garbarino S, Puce L, Trompetto C, Marinelli L, Currà A, Jahrami H, Trabelsi K, Mellado B, Asgary A, Wu J, Kong JD. Planetary sleep medicine: Studying sleep at the individual, population, and planetary level. Front Public Health 2022; 10:1005100. [PMID: 36330122 PMCID: PMC9624384 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1005100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2022] [Accepted: 09/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Circadian rhythms are a series of endogenous autonomous oscillators that are generated by the molecular circadian clock which coordinates and synchronizes internal time with the external environment in a 24-h daily cycle (that can also be shorter or longer than 24 h). Besides daily rhythms, there exist as well other biological rhythms that have different time scales, including seasonal and annual rhythms. Circadian and other biological rhythms deeply permeate human life, at any level, spanning from the molecular, subcellular, cellular, tissue, and organismal level to environmental exposures, and behavioral lifestyles. Humans are immersed in what has been called the "circadian landscape," with circadian rhythms being highly pervasive and ubiquitous, and affecting every ecosystem on the planet, from plants to insects, fishes, birds, mammals, and other animals. Anthropogenic behaviors have been producing a cascading and compounding series of effects, including detrimental impacts on human health. However, the effects of climate change on sleep have been relatively overlooked. In the present narrative review paper, we wanted to offer a way to re-read/re-think sleep medicine from a planetary health perspective. Climate change, through a complex series of either direct or indirect mechanisms, including (i) pollution- and poor air quality-induced oxygen saturation variability/hypoxia, (ii) changes in light conditions and increases in the nighttime, (iii) fluctuating temperatures, warmer values, and heat due to extreme weather, and (iv) psychological distress imposed by disasters (like floods, wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, and infectious outbreaks by emerging and reemerging pathogens) may contribute to inducing mismatches between internal time and external environment, and disrupting sleep, causing poor sleep quantity and quality and sleep disorders, such as insomnia, and sleep-related breathing issues, among others. Climate change will generate relevant costs and impact more vulnerable populations in underserved areas, thus widening already existing global geographic, age-, sex-, and gender-related inequalities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola Luigi Bragazzi
- Laboratory for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (LIAM), Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada,*Correspondence: Nicola Luigi Bragazzi
| | - Sergio Garbarino
- Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics and Maternal/Child Sciences (DINOGMI), University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
| | - Luca Puce
- Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics and Maternal/Child Sciences (DINOGMI), University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
| | - Carlo Trompetto
- Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics and Maternal/Child Sciences (DINOGMI), University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy,Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Genoa, Italy
| | - Lucio Marinelli
- Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics and Maternal/Child Sciences (DINOGMI), University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy,Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Genoa, Italy
| | - Antonio Currà
- Department of Medical-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Academic Neurology Unit, Ospedale A. Fiorini, Terracina, Italy,Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Haitham Jahrami
- Ministry of Health, Manama, Bahrain,College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Arabian Gulf University, Manama, Bahrain
| | - Khaled Trabelsi
- High Institute of Sport and Physical Education of Sfax, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia,Research Laboratory: Education, Motricity, Sport and Health, EM2S, LR19JS01, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia
| | - Bruce Mellado
- School of Physics and Institute for Collider Particle Physics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa,Subatomic Physics, iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator Based Sciences, Somerset West, South Africa
| | - Ali Asgary
- Disaster and Emergency Management Area and Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid-Response Simulation (ADERSIM), School of Administrative Studies, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Jianhong Wu
- Laboratory for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (LIAM), Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Jude Dzevela Kong
- Laboratory for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (LIAM), Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada
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