Wearable Vital Signs Monitoring for Patients With Asthma: A Review

Worldwide, an estimated 461 000 people die from asthma attacks each year. While there remain treatments to alleviate asthma symptoms and reduce deaths, patient deterioration needs to be identified in sufficient time. To prevent asthma deterioration, patients need to be aware of personal and environmental triggers and monitor their asthma symptoms. The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive review of the current state-of-the-art wearable sensors and devices that use vital signs for asthma patient monitoring and management. Among all vital signs, breathing rate and airflow sound are key indicators of asthmatic patients’ health that can be measured directly using wearable sensors to provide continuous and constant patient monitoring or indirectly by estimations based on proven algorithms using electrocardiogram (ECG), photoplethysmogram (PPG), and chest movements. ECG and PPG signals are widely used in smart watches and chest bands, enabling easy integration of a more extensive body sensor framework for asthmatic exacerbation prediction. Other vital signs used in asthma patient monitoring include blood oxygen saturation, temperature, blood pressure, verbal sound, and pain responses. The use of wearable vital signs enabled a broad range of wearable sensor application scenarios for asthma monitoring and management.