America Walks Study
America Walks Study
free
not available
America Walks is an observational research study to determine walking behavior of individuals in the United States. The entire study will be conducted virtually by requiring participants to download a mobile phone application ("App"). The App will leverage the mobile phone's step count sensor technology to automatically determine participants' daily walking activity.America Walks will be the first study to measure walking activity using mobile phones. It is well known that physical activity can promote well-being and help prevent several chronic diseases. It is recommended that an individual should do moderate to vigorous walking for 30 minutes or walk approximately 10,000 steps everyday.Several studies have reported measuring walking activity using self-reported surveys, or pedometers in samples ranging from a dozen to a couple of thousand participants. However these studies have largely required participants to enter their walking data manually, either from memory or from pedometer recordings.
With the rapid availability of activity sensors embedded in smart-phones (such as Apple's iPhone version 5S and up and several Google's Android phone models), it is now possible to track physical activity data passively from the end-user and do so for longer durations as individuals have increasingly begun to use their Phones as a continuous device of use. So this study aims to measure the walking behavior of a wide base of Americans using their smart phones and help them see how they walk compared to others in their state or demographic category.
The study will be conducted for 120 days and each participant will be expected to participate for 30 days.No potential risk is anticipated from the study beyond the risk that is entailed in walking or in using mobile phones. Use of the study App may cause some device battery usage but this would be minimal. There is a risk of loss of confidentiality of your data.
The data collected will be used to display the step counts of all participants in the study on a map. Additional details will be provided for each demographic category in a graph view. This will allow you to see how your steps compare to others in your state/city and demographic category. Data will also be used to show a leaderboard displaying a ranking of states based on average daily steps walked by participants in that state and your ranking in your state and nationally. Additional aggregate metrics will be displayed on the study website.
With the rapid availability of activity sensors embedded in smart-phones (such as Apple's iPhone version 5S and up and several Google's Android phone models), it is now possible to track physical activity data passively from the end-user and do so for longer durations as individuals have increasingly begun to use their Phones as a continuous device of use. So this study aims to measure the walking behavior of a wide base of Americans using their smart phones and help them see how they walk compared to others in their state or demographic category.
The study will be conducted for 120 days and each participant will be expected to participate for 30 days.No potential risk is anticipated from the study beyond the risk that is entailed in walking or in using mobile phones. Use of the study App may cause some device battery usage but this would be minimal. There is a risk of loss of confidentiality of your data.
The data collected will be used to display the step counts of all participants in the study on a map. Additional details will be provided for each demographic category in a graph view. This will allow you to see how your steps compare to others in your state/city and demographic category. Data will also be used to show a leaderboard displaying a ranking of states based on average daily steps walked by participants in that state and your ranking in your state and nationally. Additional aggregate metrics will be displayed on the study website.