A Novel mHealth Monitoring System during Cycling in Elite Athletes

Cycling is a very demanding physical activity that may create various health disorders during an athlete's career. Recently, smart mobile and wearable technologies have been used to monitor physiological responses and possible disturbances during physical activity. Thus, the application of mHealth methods in sports poses a challenge today. This study used a novel mobile-Health method to monitor athletes' physiological responses and to detect health disorders early during cycling in elite athletes.

Sixteen high-level cyclists participated in this study, which included a series of measurements in the laboratory; health and performance assessments; and then application in the field of mHealth monitoring in two training seasons, at the beginning of their training period and in the race season. A field monitoring test took place during 30 min of uphill cycling with the participant's heart rate at the ventilatory threshold. During monitoring periods, heart rate, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, and electrocardiogram were monitored via the mHealth system. Moreover, the SpO₂ was estimated continuously, and the symptoms during effort were reported.

A significant correlation was found between the symptoms reported by the athletes in the two field tests and the findings recorded with the application of the mHealth monitoring method. However, from the pre-participation screening in the laboratory and from the spiroergometric tests, no abnormal findings were detected that were to blame for the appearance of the symptoms.

The application of mHealth monitoring during competitive cycling is a very useful method for the early recording of cardiac and other health disorders of athletes, whose untimely evaluation could lead to unforeseen events.