How to Collect Wearables Data for a Health Product

Wearables have become a familiar part of our daily lives. Whether it’s tracking steps, monitoring sleep, or checking heart rate, more than 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. now uses a wearable device regularly. However, when it comes to using this data for health product validation, especially in research and claims substantiation, most brands and researchers still face a critical question:

How do you actually collect wearables data for a study?

Whether you’re validating a supplement, skincare line, fragrance, or fitness product, wearables can provide powerful, real-world insights that go far beyond perception surveys or one-off lab measurements. And at Alethios, we make wearable data collection seamless, whether you’re running a consumer marketing study or a full-scale clinical trial.

‍

Why Collect Wearables Data?

Wearables data allows you to add rich, generated, more objective data to reported outcomes and assessments. Using participant-generated health data from wearables or sensors can enhance health and marketing claims, and when used correctly, can be a crucial part of how a claim is developed and substantiated scientifically. While wearables have been developed for many years, from the first accelerometer, to new commercially available rings and sensors for consumers to buy at-home, we are starting to see them leveraged beyond pharmaceutical research for the first time.

Here’s what wearables data can offer:

• Real-world, continuous data: Captures real-life usage over time, not just a single point in a lab.
  
  
• Credibility in claims: Helps substantiate structure/function claims like “improves sleep” or “reduces stress.”
  
  
• Participant-friendly: Non-invasive, easy to use, and often already integrated into daily routines.
  
  
• Efficient and scalable: Cheaper than some biomarkers or in-person protocols, with faster timelines.
  
  

Whether you’re running exploratory research or preparing for regulatory submission, wearable data can help you move faster, with more confidence.

When Is Wearables Data a ‘Need to Have’ vs. a ‘Nice to Have’?

Depending on your study goals, wearables can play several roles:

• Primary endpoint: i.e., HRV to measure stress reduction in a wellness supplement trial.
  
  
• Secondary endpoint: i.e., sleep improvement in a skincare product trial.
  
  
• Control variable: i.e., step count to contextualize results in a metabolic health study.
  
  
• Marketing asset: i.e., real-world improvement in sleep quality to support ad claims.
  
  
• Participant segmentation: i.e., grouping participants by baseline activity or sleep patterns.
  
  

The same device can serve multiple roles across different studies, depending on how it’s integrated into the research design.

‍

10 Use Cases for Wearables in Health Studies

Whether you’re a consumer brand, a research team, or a digital health company, wearable data can support a wide range of research needs. Here are ten ways we’ve seen customers use it:

1. Recovery supplements: HRV and resting heart rate (RHR) as stress/recovery indicators
   
   
2. Skincare products: Sleep quality as a variable for understanding skin health and inflammation
   
   
3. Fitness apps and protocols: Daily step count, activity tracking, resting heart rate, basal metabolic rate, and VO2 max to validate in-app features
   
   
4. Weight-loss programs: Daily calories burned, step count and body composition from smart scales
   
   
5. Mood-enhancing products: Stress tracking and sleep patterns
   
   
6. Sleep-focused products: Sleep stages and duration from smartwatches or rings, composite or derived metrics for recovery, like the Garmin Body Battery (see an article our founder wrote about using the Body Battery for ‘pacing’ through Long Covid)
   
   
7. Functional foods: Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) from Abbott Libre, Nutriscience, Zoe devices or Dexcoms
   
   
8. Fragrance trials: Heart rate as a marker of emotional response
   
   
9. Longevity Studies: Resting heart rate, HRV, sleep, VO2 max and more to assess daily functioning and well-being
   
   
10. Pilot pharma studies: Baseline and ongoing activity levels to monitor patient health
    
    

‍

Common Wearable Endpoints You Can Track

Here are the most commonly used data types in wearable-integrated studies:

• Heart Rate (HR)
  
  
• Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
  
  
• Resting Heart Rate (RHR)
  
  
• Sleep Duration & Sleep Stages
  
  
• Step Count / Daily Activity
  
  
• Respiratory Rate
  
  
• Skin Temperature
  
  
• VO2 Max
  
  
• Blood Oxygen (SpO2)
  
  
• Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM)
  
  

Different devices capture different endpoints. WHOOP and Oura for HRV and sleep, Fitbit and Apple Watch for activity, Dexcom for CGM, and so on. The key is choosing the right devices based on compatibility, approach (bring-your-own-device or not) and study design.

‍

Current challenges with capturing wearables data

Many researchers start by thinking they just need access to wearable APIs, and many companies have made great strides in building standardized wearable APIs to be integrated into all types of consumer solutions. However, the data required for research can often be different from what might be used for a consumer application.

Integrating wearable APIs into a self-built study application or portal still leaves you with:

• A lack of standardization around how to frequently to pull data
• A lack of standardization around data formats and compatibility between device families
• Challenges matching participant wearable data to other study data
• No solution to track, encourage or address wearable adherence with participants
• No participant support around wearable compatibility
• Managing API integrations across wearable device families
  
  

Academic and clinical teams often underestimate the complexity of stitching this all together.

‍

Why Alethios Is the Simplest Way to Collect Wearables Data

Alethios gives you an end-to-end platform for collecting wearables and sensor data in any health research setting:

• Integrated recruitment: Target the right population and recruit directly via our platform
  
  
• IRB-ready setup: Digital protocol builder, consent flows, and recruitment materials in minutes
  
  
• Device distribution: Provision devices or support BYOD (bring your own device) models
  
  
• Structured data output: Clean, labeled, and integrated with other study endpoints
  
  
• Live monitoring: Real-time dashboards for participant engagement and data quality
  
  

Our customers, including leading wellness brands, use Alethios to collect wearable data across multiple SKUs, with zero coding or infrastructure building required. You could be doing a pilot study observing your customers who have wearables to explore a potential claim, capturing structured testimonial data, even doing an n of 1 study on yourself - wearables can provide rich, meaningful, and often, relatable context around health interventions.

‍

Making Wearables Work for You

Whether you’re validating a new product, exploring early signals, or launching a study for clinical publication, wearables can unlock a new level of insight.

With Alethios, you don’t need a data engineering team, a recruitment pipeline, or a warehouse of wearables. We handle the complexity – so you can focus on innovation.

Want to include wearables in your next study?

Let’s talk.