Atopic dermatitis (AD) is significantly prominent in the US, impacting around 16.5 million adults with 40% of them experiencing moderate-to-severe disease symptoms. Furthermore, itching is the most common symptom among patients with AD, followed by skin redness and sleep loss.
The use of haptic feedback directly embedded in the wearable sensor as a novel approach to alert patients of subconscious nocturnal scratching. After integrating a haptic motor into a closed-loop wearable device, researchers tested the technology on patients with mild AD who reported moderate or severe scratching complications. A total of 10 patients with AD were included in the study (6 women and 4 men; mean age, 36). The device exhibited overall accuracy of 99%, sensitivity of 95%, and specificity of 99% for the 10 volunteers.
The device’s haptic feedback was responsible for a mean decrease of 28% for total scratch events and decrease of 40% for total scratch duration. The introduction of the haptic motor provides a closed-loop system, enabling the device to provide a real-time intervention to address scratching behavior. Using the device, the duration of total and hourly scratch time at night and number of total and hourly scratch events were significantly decreased in this cohort.