Feasibility of wearable monitors to detect heart rate variability in children with hand, foot and mouth disease

TL;DR

This study shows that wearable devices can measure heart rate variability in children with hand, foot, and mouth disease, potentially helping identify those at higher risk of severe illness.

Contribution

The study demonstrates the feasibility of using wearable monitors for HRV in children with HFMD in a low- and middle-income country.

Findings

HRV indices were lower in children with enterovirus A71 compared to other pathogens.

Wearable devices proved feasible for HRV data collection in a hospital setting in Vietnam.

The method could help classify disease severity and improve resource allocation during outbreaks.

Abstract

Hand foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is caused by a variety of enteroviruses, and occurs in large outbreaks in which a small proportion of children deteriorate rapidly with cardiopulmonary failure. Determining which children are likely to deteriorate is difficult and health systems may become overloaded during outbreaks as many children require hospitalization for monitoring. Heart rate variability (HRV) may help distinguish those with more severe diseases but requires simple scalable methods to collect ECG data.

We carried out a prospective observational study to examine the feasibility of using wearable devices to measure HRV in 142 children admitted with HFMD at a children’s hospital in Vietnam. ECG data were collected in all children. HRV indices calculated were lower in those with enterovirus A71 associated HFMD compared to those with other viral pathogens.

HRV analysis collected from wearable devices is feasible in a low and middle income country (LMIC) and may help classify disease severity in HFMD.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12879-024-08994-x.

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