Systematic review of best practices for GPS data usage, processing, and linkage in health, exposure science and environmental context research

Abstract

Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is increasingly used in health research to capture individual mobility and contextual and environmental exposures. However, the tools, techniques and decisions for using GPS data vary from study to study, making comparisons and reproducibility challenging.

Objectives: The objectives of this systematic review were to (1) identify best practices for GPS data collection and processing; (2) quantify reporting of best practices in published studies; and (3) discuss examples found in reviewed manuscripts that future researchers may employ for reporting GPS data usage, processing and linkage of GPS data in health studies.

Design: A systematic review.

Data sources: Electronic databases searched (24 October 2023) were PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science (PROSPERO ID: CRD42022322166).

Eligibility criteria: Included peer-reviewed studies published in English met at least one of the criteria: (1) protocols involving GPS for exposure/context and human health research purposes and containing empirical data; (2) linkage of GPS data to other data intended for research on contextual influences on health; (3) associations between GPS-measured mobility or exposures and health; (4) derived variable methods using GPS data in health research; or (5) comparison of GPS tracking with other methods (eg, travel diary).

Data extraction and synthesis: We examined 157 manuscripts for reporting of best practices including wear time, sampling frequency, data validity, noise/signal loss and data linkage to assess risk of bias.

Results: We found that 6% of the studies did not disclose the GPS device model used, only 12.1% reported the per cent of GPS data lost by signal loss, only 15.7% reported the per cent of GPS data considered to be noise and only 68.2% reported the inclusion criteria for their data.

Conclusions: Our recommendations for reporting on GPS usage, processing and linkage may be transferrable to other geospatial devices, with the hope of promoting transparency and reproducibility in this research.

Prospero registration number: CRD42022322166.

Keywords: accelerometer; built environment; exposome; geographic information system; imputation; mobility.

Figure 1

Flow chart of systematic review process. GPS, Global Positioning System.

Figure 2

Average scores and 95% CIs for Global Positioning System (GPS) usage (high=4, low=0; A) and processing (high=5, low=0; B) practices reported, by year.