Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40397926›Full record

ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2025

Testing the Impact of Intensive, Longitudinal Sampling on Assessments of Statistical Power and Effect Size Within a Heterogeneous Human Population: Natural Experiment Using Change in Heart Rate on Weekends as a Surrogate Intervention.

Severine Soltani, Varun K Viswanath, Patrick Kasl, Wendy Hartogensis, Stephan Dilchert, Frederick M Hecht, Ashley E Mason, Benjamin L Smarr

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Severine SoltaniBioinformatics and Systems Biology Graduate Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States.ORCID 0000-0003-0894-9993
Varun K ViswanathDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States.ORCID 0000-0001-6299-5777
Patrick KaslShu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-7756-7326
Wendy HartogensisOsher Center for Integrative Health, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-4979-8661
Stephan DilchertZicklin School of Business, Baruch College, New York, NY, United States.ORCID 0000-0001-6733-576X
Frederick M HechtOsher Center for Integrative Health, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-5782-1171
Ashley E Mason *Osher Center for Integrative Health, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-8744-0185
Benjamin L Smarr *Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States.ORCID 0000-0003-4442-3956

Funding

Graduate Training Program in BioinformaticsT32GM139790 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · PI BAFNA, VINEET, GAASTERLAND, THERESA · 2021 to 2025
$2.1M
Mentoring and Research in Integrative MedicineK24AT007827 · NCCIH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · PI HECHT, FREDERICK M · 2013 to 2022
$1.8M
NCCIH NIH HHS K24 AT007827NIGMS NIH HHS T32 GM139790
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe recent emergence of wearable devices has made feasible the passive gathering of intensive, longitudinal data from large groups of individuals. This form of data is effective at capturing physiological changes between participants (interindividual variability) and changes within participants over time (intraindividual variability). The emergence of longitudinal datasets provides an opportunity to quantify the contribution of such longitudinal data to the control of these sources of variability for applications such as responder analysis, where traditional, sparser sampling methods may hinder the categorization of individuals into these phenotypes.

objectiveThis study aimed to quantify the gains made in statistical power and effect size among statistical comparisons when controlling for interindividual variability and intraindividual variability compared with controlling for neither.

methodsHere, we test the gains in statistical power from controlling for interindividual and intraindividual variability of resting heart rate, collected in 2020 for over 40,000 individuals as part of the TemPredict study on COVID-19 detection. We compared heart rate on weekends with that on weekdays because weekends predictably change the behavior of most individuals, though not all, and in different ways. Weekends also repeat consistently, making their effects on heart rate feasible to assess with confidence over large populations. We therefore used weekends as a model system to test the impact of different statistical controls on detecting a recurring event with a clear ground truth. We randomly and iteratively sampled heart rate from weekday and weekend nights, controlling for interindividual variability, intraindividual variability, both, or neither.

resultsBetween-participant variability appeared to be a greater source of structured variability than within-participant fluctuations. Accounting for interindividual variability through within-individual sampling required 40× fewer pairs of samples to achieve statistical significance with 4× to 5× greater effect size at significance. Within-individual sampling revealed differential effects of weekends on heart rate, which were obscured by aggregated sampling methods.

conclusionsThis work highlights the leverage provided by longitudinal, within-individual sampling to increase statistical power among populations with heterogeneous effects.

Indexed as

COVID-19Heart RateAdultFemaleHumansLongitudinal StudiesMaleSARS-CoV-2Wearable Electronic Devicesbiomedical sciencemHealthphysiological heterogeneityphysiological variabilitysample sizewearable sensors

Identifiers

PMID40397926
PMCPMC12138295

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.