Have an Android phone and smartwatch? Help contribute to COVID-19 research about hand hygiene behaviors.​

The mHealth research group from Northeastern University (Boston, MA) is running a research study to support the development new mobile phone and smartwatch apps intended to help people improve and maintain their hand hygiene behaviors. The new apps may help people improve hand washing and avoid unnecessary face touching, therefore lowering the risk of infection of transmissive diseases, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. To make this work possible, we need test data from people who are doing hand washing and face touching while wearing a smartwatch.

We are currently looking for volunteers age 18 and over who use an Android phone and Android Wear smartwatch who are interested in participating the study.

If you participate, you will collect example data for us in your own home, at your convenience. You will download a data collection app created by our research group from the Google Play store that will install on your phone and your smartwatch. You will then wear your smartwatch and follow instructions on the phone app, which will guide you through a set of proper hand washing activities, face touching activities, and activities involving hand-to-face gestures (e.g., putting on a hat or face mask). You will be asked to collect between one and six datasets, with each session taking about 20 minutes, but they can be done at different times. After each session, motion data from your smartwatch will be sent back to our research team and used to help us develop new hygiene promotion apps. You will also have the opportunity to choose to opt-in a two-day free-living data collection after finishing the six sessions. During the free-living data collection, you will wear your smartwatch and phone as usual in your daily life and answer prompted questions on your smartwatch. This study will help you learn proper hand washing technique.

This study has been reviewed and approved by the Northeastern University Institutional Review Board (#20-07-18).

If you are interested in participating and supporting our research, please download the app here from the Google Play Store to learn more and get started.