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Evaluating the Validity and Feasibility of a Smartwatch-based Eating Detection System to Passively and Automatically Detect Eating Events in Child-parent Dyads

Evaluating the Validity and Feasibility of a Smartwatch-based Eating Detection System to Passively and Automatically Detect Eating Events in Child-parent Dyads

Status
Recruiting
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Observational
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT07290179
Enrollment
35
Registered
2025-12-18
Start date
2026-06-10
Completion date
2026-12-01
Last updated
2026-06-11

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Eating Behavior

Brief summary

This study will test the validity and feasibility of an smartwatch-based system to detect eating and drinking events in both laboratory and free-living conditions.

Detailed description

The study will: 1) determine whether the smartwatch-based system accurately detects eating events in child-parent dyads in controlled settings and 2) evaluate the feasibility and practicality of passively detecting eating events in child-parent dyads over 3 days in free-living settings. The study will include two phases. During the laboratory visit, child-parent dyads will wear the smartwatch on their dominant hand and perform activities including eating gestures. These activities will be recorded with a video camera, and the videos will be coded for the ground truth times of eating. In the second phase of the study, child-parent dyads will continue wearing the smartwatch for 3 more days in free-living conditions. In the free-living period, parents will receive personalized Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) prompts reminding them to activate the smartwatch.

Interventions

OTHERSmartwatch and EMA-based eating behavior tracking

Participants (child-parent dyads) will wear a smartwatch on their dominant hand during a laboratory session and for three days in free-living conditions. In the lab, dyads will perform eating-related activities (e.g., eating with utensils, eating with hands, drinking) and non-eating activities (e.g., walking, writing, brushing teeth) while being video recorded for ground truth validation. Parents will receive a 20-minute training on using Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) prompts to record meal and snack times and will respond to EMA reminders during the free-living period. Adherence will be monitored through smartwatch wear time and EMA response rates.

Sponsors

Pennington Biomedical Research Center
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Observational model
COHORT
Time perspective
CROSS_SECTIONAL

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
8 Years to 12 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Parents or caregivers (18-70 years) who have children aged 8-12 years * Child is willing and able to wear smartwatch during school hours (have not restrictions in the school setting)

Exclusion criteria

* Any condition or circumstance that could impede study completion * Child does not follow a regular eating pattern * Child eats less than 1 meal and 1 snack in a day * Child is restricted or allergic to the study foods * Refusal or unable to use the smartwatch to collect data for the 3-day period in free - living conditions * Parental refusal or unable to respond Ecological Momentary Assessment prompts

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Accuracy and Performance of Smartwatch-based Eating Detection System in Controlled ConditionsDuring the controlled laboratory session (Day 1).Accuracy and performance of smartwatch-based system for detecting eating and drinking events compared to video-coded ground truth during a controlled laboratory conditions. Metrics include: Precision (proportion of correctly detected eating events among all detected events), Recall/Sensitivity (proportion of actual eating events detected), Specificity (proportion of non-eating events correctly identified as non-eating) F1-score (harmonic mean of precision and recall), Overall accuracy (proportion of correct classification).
Adherence to Smartwatch ProtocolDuring the free-living phase (Days 2-4).Proportion of families meeting adherence criteria, defined as both parent and child wearing the smartwatch during eating on at least 2 of 3 days and the parent responding to ≥75% of EMA prompts related to smartwatch charging and app functionality.

Countries

United States

Contacts

CONTACTHanim E Diktas, PhD
hanim.diktas@pbrc.edu(225) 763-2832
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORHanim E Diktas, PhD

Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Jun 12, 2026