Reliability of a novel wearable device to measure chewing frequency

Purpose: In recent years, the chewing frequency, i.e., the number of chewing cycles, has decreased owing to changes in dietary habits. Although these changes may be related to complete body health, there is no evidence-based tool to measure the dietary habits. We developed a small ear-hung wearable device for monitoring mastication behavior. The device, worn on the ear pinna, allows the counting of the number of chewing cycles, and data are collected on a smartphone via Bluetooth. In this study, the reliability of the novel device was verified. Methods: A total of 22 healthy volunteers participated in the study. During measurement, the subjects wore the novel wearable device on their right ear pinna and were asked to chew gum, gummy jellies, and rice balls. The number of chewing cycles was counted by the device. A mandibular kinesiograph (MKG) was also recorded, and the chewing activity was recorded as a video. The accuracy, precision, and recall of the ear-hung device were calculated by comparing the data obtained from the MKG and the video recording. Additionally, the factors affecting reliability were examined. Results: The accuracy, precision, and recall of the novel device were 101.6 +/- 13.6%, 85.3 +/- 11.0%, and 84.5 +/- 9.5%, respectively. Although the accuracy was not affected by any factor, precision and recall of the novel device for women were significantly worse than that for men, and were greatest when the subjects were chewing gum. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the newly developed ear-hung wearable device for counting the number of chewing cycles was sufficiently reliable.