The long term goal of this Phase I project is to commercialize an in-home device that facilitates significant levelsof ongoing exercise while safely seated, that can enable intuitive engagement by the user, that doesn't interferewith taskng, reading or other activities, that can significantly reduce sedentary behavior, and that can aggregateand display usage data with biometrics derived from other sources to present an actionable picture of one'shealth and remote monitoring of changes in health status. By doing so, we expect to substantially raisecompliance to prescribed levels of energy expenditure of a cardiac rehab program. This application requestsfunds to develop the FitSitt, a highly comfortable chair with a uniquely articulating dynamic seatand back supportthat actively respond to, follow, and support the user's movements while integrating a synchronously-movingtreadle with which to exercise legs. The technology proposed will transform sitting from sedentariness tomovement and exercise and may contribute preventive and ameliorative cardio-metabolic health benefits to atarget market of nearly 31 million inactive adults aged 65+ in the US and prolong years of independent living.While cardiac rehab is proven to dramatically reduce mortality and provide important health benefits, it is woefullyunder-utilized. Sedentary behavior is directly linked to a dramatic rise in chronic disease, but sedentary olderadults are not likely to maintain exercise habits, so the approach is for FitSitt to convert a portion of sitting timefrom sedentary to active, distributed across the day, enabling movement experienced as effortless because it isconvenient, easy to use, available, and comfortable. Preliminary studies show that the energy expenditure at alow resistance setting for the current Fitsitt 0.5 is equivalent to walking 1 mph. The primary objective of thisproject is to complete development of an advanced FitSitt 1.0 prototype, expanding its features to assure safety,increase technical merit and likelihood of feasibility for home use. The specific Aims are: Aim 1a:Engineer/upgrade FitSitt 0.5's features for optimal in-home maneuverabilityand comfort over extended periods.Aim 1b: Design, then calibrate algorithms to collect use statistics data from on-board sensors. Aggregate,correlate, and calibrate with heart rate data derived from a separate wearable. Aim 2: Validate data collectionand calibration, and evaluate usability of combined-feature FitSitt 1.0. Older adults who have experienced acardiac event within the past 6 months will have unstructured use of the chair in their own homes during a 24-hour period and then complete a user experience interview and rating including a modified System UsabilityScale. Plans for Phase II include further refinement of hardware and expansion of software capabilities towardcommercialization, and the construction of 10 advanced prototypes for additional and extended user testing overmulti-week trials at home. The ultimate goal of this project is to combine into one platform the aggregation ofhealth data with a rehabilitative device which can be used to act on and improve that data through less sedentaryliving and increased physical activity distributed across the day.
Public Health Relevance Statement: This project develops an improved and upgraded prototype of a smart device which provides comfortable, ongoing seated in-home exercise that does not interfere with sedentary activities such as reading or watching TV while it tracks and correlates usage with health metrics. It has been created to enable and fill the need for in-home cardiac rehabilitation opportunities and reduce sedentary behavior with lower-body low-intensity exercise, because spending long periods of time sitting is associated with negative health outcomes including medical conditions that all-too-often follow hospital discharge. The potential benefit is that risk of a subsequent cardiac event is lower, with fewer hours spent sitting sedentary, improving the quality physical health and fitness of older adults, and maintaining independent living for longer periods of time.
Project Terms: Adult ; 21+ years old ; Adult Human ; adulthood ; Age ; ages ; Elderly ; advanced age ; elders ; geriatric ; late life ; later life ; older adult ; older person ; senior citizen ; Algorithms ; Back ; Dorsum ; Biometry ; Biometrics ; Biostatistics ; Calibration ; Chronic Disease ; Chronic Illness ; chronic disorder ; Communication ; Data Aggregation ; Aggregated Data ; Data Collection ; Economics ; Education ; Educational aspects ; Elements ; Energy Metabolism ; Energy Expenditure ; Engineering ; Exercise ; Exertion ; Feedback ; Goals ; Habits ; Hand ; Health ; Medicare ; Health Insurance for Aged and Disabled, Title 18 ; Health Insurance for Disabled Title 18 ; Title 18 ; health insurance for disabled ; Health Status ; Level of Health ; Heart failure ; cardiac failure ; Heart Rate ; Cardiac Chronotropism ; Recording of previous events ; History ; Hospitals ; Independent Living ; indexing ; Interview ; mortality ; Motivation ; Movement ; body movement ; Patients ; Personal Satisfaction ; well-being ; wellbeing ; Physical Fitness ; Posture ; Production ; Reading ; Rehabilitation Centers ; Risk ; Safety ; Computer software ; Software ; statistics ; Technology ; Testing ; Time ; Videotape ; Work ; Macrophage-1 Antigen ; CR3 ; CR3 Receptor ; Complement 3 Receptor ; Integrin alpha-M beta-2 ; Integrin alphaMbeta2 ; Mac 1 ; Mac-1 Adhesive Receptor ; Mac-1 Antigen ; Mac-1 Receptor ; Mo1 Antigen Receptor ; Mo1 Glycoprotein Receptor ; αMβ2 ; Measures ; Walking ; Caregivers ; Care Givers ; Health Care Costs ; Health Costs ; Healthcare Costs ; Health Benefit ; base ; sensor ; improved ; sedentary ; repaired ; repair ; Phase ; Medical ; Link ; Evaluation ; Physical activity ; Intuition ; Progress Reports ; Funding ; Letters ; Consensus ; programs ; Hour ; Event ; Source ; Pattern ; System ; physical health ; physical conditioning ; behavior change ; American ; experience ; success ; hospital re-admission ; re-admission ; re-hospitalization ; readmission ; rehospitalization ; hospital readmission ; Participant ; member ; Devices ; Modeling ; Sampling ; Leg ; Address ; Preventive ; Data ; Request for Applications ; NIH RFA ; research clinical testing ; Clinical Evaluation ; Clinical Testing ; clinical test ; Validation ; Wireless Technology ; wireless ; Characteristics ; Cardiac ; Development ; developmental ; tv watching ; screen time ; television watching ; cost ; Advanced Development ; design ; designing ; Outcome ; Rehabilitation device ; rehab device ; aged ; innovation ; innovate ; innovative ; Resistance ; resistant ; usability ; week trial ; prototype ; commercialization ; Cardiac rehabilitation ; cardiac rehab ; sedentary lifestyle ; Sedentary behavior ; Sedentary life-style ; health data ; data visualization ; exercise regimen ; Exercise routine ; exercise intensity ; sedentary activity ; Internet of Things ; wearable device ; wearable electronics ; wearable technology ; care providers ; primary care provider ; coronary event ; cardiometabolism ; cardiometabolic ; augmented intelligence ; COVID-19 ; COVID19 ; CV-19 ; CV19 ; corona virus disease 2019 ; coronavirus disease 2019 ; automated algorithm ; automatic algorithm ; home test ; home-based test ; remote monitoring ; remote patient monitoring ; Home ;
