WHO seeks feedback on wearables for public health surveys
The draft lays out features for wrist-worn devices that could measure movement across populations.
The World Health Organization is consulting on a set of draft specifications for wrist-worn activity monitors. It is looking at how national and regional health programmes might collect comparable measurements of movement and sedentary time.
Many population surveys rely on participants to recall their own activity. A wearable can complement that approach by recording movement directly, but using the devices routinely calls for equipment and data that public health programmes can manage at scale.
The draft describes minimum specifications and additional capabilities. It is written for population monitoring, with researchers, health authorities and device developers among those who can comment.
