Assessing the impact of personal exposure to air pollution on asthma control: feasibility study and preliminary findings using the AirPredict eHealth platform

Asthma management is challenging due to the complex interplay between environmental factors and individual respiratory outcomes, particularly concerning exacerbation risk. While air pollution has been associated with worsening of asthma symptoms in the literature, the precise relationships between personal exposure and respiratory outcomes remain unclear. This paper provides an overview of AirPredict, an innovative eHealth platform designed to bridge this knowledge gap. AirPredict includes a mobile application, which integrates data from wearable/portable sensors (a smartwatch measuring heart rate, a wearable air quality sensor measuring particulate matter, and a portable spirometer measuring lung function) and a digital asthma diary, a web interface for clinicians and a cloud database. A feasibility study involving 16 participants (asthma patients and specialized clinicians) was conducted in Padova to evaluate the platform’s usability and data collection capabilities. Preliminary findings from an exploratory analysis of a representative subject’s data are presented, demonstrating AirPredict’s potential for measuring the impact of personal exposure to air pollution on respiratory outcomes and highlighting the need for larger-scale validation of results.