Bring Your Own Location Data: Use of Google Smartphone Location History Data for Environmental Health Research.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Environmental exposures are commonly estimated using spatial methods, with most epidemiological studies relying on home addresses. Passively collected smartphone location data, like Google Location History (GLH) data, may present an opportunity to integrate existing long-term time-activity data.

Objectives

We aimed to evaluate the potential use of GLH data for capturing long-term retrospective time-activity data for environmental health research.

Methods

We included 378 individuals who participated in previous Global Positioning System (GPS) studies within the Washington State Twin Registry. GLH data consists of location information that has been routinely collected since 2010 when location sharing was enabled within android operating systems or Google apps

SUBMITTER: Hystad P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9648904 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature