Abstract
Background
A critical aspect of air pollution exposure assessments is determining the time spent in various microenvironments (ME), which can have substantially different pollutant concentrations. We previously developed and evaluated a ME classification model, called Microenvironment Tracker (MicroTrac), to estimate time of day and duration spent in eight MEs (indoors and outdoors at home, work, school; inside vehicles; other locations) based on input data from global positioning system (GPS) loggers.
Objective
In this study, we extended MicroTrac and evaluated the ability of using geolocation data from smartphones to determine the time spent in the MEs.
Method
We performed a panel study, and the MicroTrac estimates based on data from smartphones and GPS loggers were compared to 37 days of diary data across five participants.
Results
The MEs were correctly classified for 98.1% and 98.3% of the time spent by the participants using smartphones and GPS loggers, respectively.
Significance
Our study demonstrates the extended capability of using ubiquitous smartphone data with MicroTrac to help reduce time-location uncertainty in air pollution exposure models for epidemiologic and exposure field studies.
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Data availability
The data collected and processed from this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Timothy Buckley and David Heist for their review comments and helpful suggestions. All contributions from H. Christopher Frey occurred prior to taking a leave of absence from North Carolina State University for an appointment at the US EPA as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Science Policy in the Office of Research and Development. Although the manuscript was reviewed by the US EPA and approved for publication, it may not necessarily reflect official Agency policy. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.
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MSB was responsible for designing the study, extracting and analysing data, interpreting results, and writing report. YX was responsible for designing the study, extracting and analysing data, interpreting results, and writing report. HCF was responsible for designing the study, extracting and analysing data, interpreting results, writing report. MB was responsible for interpreting results and writing report. VI was responsible for interpreting results and writing report.
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The procedures involving humans were reviewed and approved by the US EPA Human Subjects Research Review Official.
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Breen, M.S., Xu, Y., Christopher Frey, H. et al. Microenvironment Tracker (MicroTrac) model to estimate time-location of individuals for air pollution exposure assessments: model evaluation using smartphone data. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 33, 407–415 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-022-00514-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-022-00514-w