Identifying chest-worn light logger adherence: a validation study

Light exposure plays an important role in overall health because it entrains circadian rhythms. Recent technological advances in wearable light loggers allow measurement daily light exposure habits. Using a chest-worn light logger, our goal was to 1) develop methodology for differentiating adherent versus non-adherent use, and 2) define differences in lighting intensity in indoor and outdoor environments, to improve data reliability in future clinical studies using this technology.

Five testers used a 10-channel chest worn light logging device under different conditions of wear and non-wear, and across a variety of indoor and outdoor lighting environments. Measurements from the light logger (photopic illuminance, device orientation, accelerometer data, time of day) were used to train and validate a logistic regression model to differentiate wear from non-wear and correct nighttime placement. This model was then applied to 20 adolescents and young adults with migraine who wore the light logger device for one week. Furthermore, measurements of photopic illuminance and melanopic equivalent daytime illuminance (mEDI) of indoor versus outdoor lighting environments were compared to identify the optimal distinction point between darker indoor and brighter outdoor environments for the chest-worn light logger.

Movement, device orientation, light, and time-of-day used as predictors in a logistic regression model had excellent differentiation between wear, non-wear and nighttime use (AUC 0.93 - 0.94), and retained good-to-excellent differentiation when applied to the validation dataset (AUC 0.84 - 0.91). When this model was applied to 20 participants with migraine, we found that 92.9% of participant-days and 71.4% of participant-nights demonstrated at least 80% appropriate use. For differentiating indoor and outdoor lighting environments, the optimal cut-point was 442 lux for photopic illuminance, and 412 lux for mEDI.

We demonstrate that internal measurements from a chest-worn light logging device can reliably differentiate wear from non-wear. We also found that the optimal cut-off to differentiate indoor and outdoor lighting environments was similar though slightly lower than then 1,000 lux cut-offs traditionally used to define bright light conditions. These findings can be used to improve data reliability in studies of everyday light exposure in clinical populations using chest-worn light loggers.