Objective Assessment of Spectacle Wear in Infants and Toddlers Using a Wearable Sensor.

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Biomedical Engineering
• Pediatrics

Background:

• Accurate monitoring of spectacle wear is crucial for effective vision correction in infants and toddlers.
• Current methods for tracking spectacle adherence in young children have limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility of using a thermal microsensor to monitor spectacle wear in children aged 3 to 47 months.
• To assess the reliability of two methods (temperature threshold and human judgment) for estimating spectacle wear from sensor data.
• To validate sensor-derived wear estimates against direct observation.

Main Methods:

• A thermal microsensor was integrated into pediatric spectacle headbands for 14 days.
• Sensor data (date, time, ambient temperature) were collected every 15 minutes.
• Spectacle wear was dichotomized using temperature threshold (TT) and human judgment (HJ) methods.
• Inter-method reliability and accuracy were assessed using Kappa statistics.

Main Results:

• Sensor data collection proved more reliable than parent wear reports.
• Both TT and HJ methods showed similar reliability for child data.
• Human judgment (HJ) provided more valid estimates of adult spectacle wear (κ = 0.94) compared to the TT method (κ = 0.78).

Conclusions:

• It is feasible to use a thermal microsensor to determine periods of spectacle wear in young children.
• The thermal microsensor is well-tolerated by pediatric participants.
• This technology holds promise for clinical monitoring and research in pediatric optometry.