The New Digital Divide For Digital BioMarkers.

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Biomedical Informatics
• Wearable Technology

Background:

• Smartphones and sensors are increasingly common, enabling digital biomarkers for health research.
• The digital divide in access is shrinking, but a new divide in participation is appearing.
• High-quality, longitudinal data is crucial for the foundation of digital biomarker studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify the demographics of individuals engaging with digital biomarker technologies.
• To understand who owns relevant devices, uses health apps, and actively participates in studies.
• To address the emerging challenge and opportunity in understanding the population behind digital biomarkers.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of smartphone and smart watch ownership data.
• Examination of health app download and usage statistics.
• Review of participation demographics in digital biomarker studies.

Main Results:

• Emerging disparities in participation within the digital biomarker field.
• Identification of distinct user groups for device ownership, app usage, and active study involvement.
• Highlighting the critical need to characterize the population contributing data.

Conclusions:

• Understanding the diverse user base is essential for the equitable advancement of digital biomarkers.
• Addressing participation disparities is a significant challenge and opportunity for the field.
• Characterizing individuals involved in digital biomarker studies is vital for data quality and study validity.