Itch Tracker for Apple Watch users measures how much you scratch during sleep. This is an app using ResearchKit (an open source framework for medical research introduced by Apple) designed for a survey on itch and targets everyone who is interested whether or not he/she is suffering from scratching.
Itch (pruritus) is one of the most common health problems and sometimes seriously impairs your quality of life. It often causes a vicious cycle of itch-scratch. Itch severity is difficult to precisely evaluate. Self-assessment is commonly used but unfortunately lacks objectiveness, especially if itch severity during sleep is evaluated. Itch Tracker is a newly-developed handy method to objectively evaluate your scratching during sleep.

Why should everyone try Itch Tracker?

You might scratch a lot while asleep without realizing it. You can take advantage of Itch Tracker by generally understanding the status of your scratching by an objective method of evaluation.

Outline

In this survey, the duration of your scratching while asleep will be measured by your Apple Watch using a newly-developed program for detecting scratching motions, after you answer a questionnaire asking about your background (gender, age, medical history, etc.) and history/status of your itch. The measurement result of scratching time/duration will be shown on the iPhone screen at the end of the survey.

Objective of survey

The objective of this survey is to investigate on potential factors that might affect, or be correlated with, scratching time during sleep. We aim at making the knowledge obtained by this survey serve for developing a better method to evaluate itch severity, which could help develop better treatments for itch in the future.

Who can participate?

Those who have both Apple Watch and iPhone, read/understand the information and agree can participate. Agreement by proxies such as a family member is necessary in case of children or difficulty in reading/understanding. If you find it difficult to wear your Apple Watch during sleep, you should not participate.

Time you need

This is a 2-day survey (1st day: background and bedtime questionnaires and start of scratching measurement while asleep, 2nd day: termination of scratching measurement while asleep and wake-up questionnaire). The questionnaires will take about 10 minutes on the 1st day (background: about 9 minutes, bedtime: about 1 minute) and about 1 minute on the 2nd day. During and after the survey period, you can repeat the process of bedtime questionnaire, measurement of scratching while asleep, and wake-up questionnaire as many times as you like.

Privacy

The privacy is secured, since the data of your answers to the questionnaire and scratching during sleep will be transferred to us without any information identifying you.

Contact for questions

Responsible legal entity: Nestlé Skin Health S.A.
Address: Avenue Gratta Paille 2, Lausanne, Vaud 1018, Switzerland.
(Representative in EU: Sebastien Cros, Galderma Research and Development, Les Templiers, 2400 route des Colles, Sophia Antipolis, 06410 Biot, France)
E-Mail: [email protected]