Garmin Triggers are triggers for intervention content based on physiological data. When the wearable picks up that there's been a significant change in physiological data, then it triggers an event on the phone to send a notification from the app which, when the participant taps on it, brings them to the survey that you've created and assigned to that trigger. Garmin Triggers are not set to absolute values but to percentiles. These percentiles set the trigger to the participant's own unique physiological data. 


For example, if Participant A rarely experiences high values of stress, then setting an absolute value of 90 for stress may mean that they almost never receive a trigger. If participant B often experiences high values of stress, then setting an absolute value of 50 for stress may mean that they receive triggers too frequently. Setting both participants to the 80th percentile of their stress level will calculate what the top 20% of stress values is for them each individually and the trigger will be set there.


Prerequisites:

  1. The desired survey should already be assigned to the participant.
  2. The participant should have some Garmin data already uploaded in order to establish the baseline.

Steps for setting a Garmin Trigger:

  1. Select a participant from the drop-down menu labeled "Mobile Code"
  2. Select the survey from the drop-down menu labeled "Survey"
  3. Select the Garmin data type from the drop-down menu labeled "Data Type"
  4. Input the number of concurrent data samples which will have to be equal to or greater than the trigger percentile. This number is input in line "Trigger survey when the average of the [X] most recent samples.."
  5. Input the percentile for the Garmin trigger. The percentile is input in line "..most recent samples is at the [X]th percentile or above"
  6. Enter times at which Garmin Triggers are disabled. Default is 9:00 PM to 7:00 AM.
  7. Select the number of samples that establish the baseline, and whether they are from the beginning or end of the participant's Garmin data set. Default is the last 10000 samples.
  8. Set the minimum time between triggers. Default is 90 minutes.
  9. Set an availability window for the triggered survey. Default is 15 minutes. Max is 30 minutes.

Important note: After the Garmin trigger has been set, the participant needs to tap "Download Updates" or "Synchronize" in the app in order to download the Garmin trigger.


You can view a graph of a participant's Garmin data by clicking on the "Show Data" button. This will render a small table and a bar graph. In the example below, we see a participant's Stress data.


The small table gives information about the Garmin data the participant has uploaded so far for the selected data type.


When creating the graph, you have two options:


  1. Average the Garmin data values within timeframes. If selected, then instead of concurrent data samples, the Garmin data for the selected Garmin data type will be averaged by the selected timeframe: the second, minute, etc.
  2. Round the Garmin data values. If selected, the Garmin data will be rounded. For example, 10.3 will become 10, etc. Default is none.



The bar graph contains the following rows:

  1. Value
    1. The Garmin data values. In this first row, each Garmin data value that has been captured will have its own column. In the example above, the highest stress data value that the Garmin wearable has captured is 72, and so there are no columns above 72.
  2. Count/Total and Percentile
    1. Count/Total
      1. The red Count/Total bars show the total count of the Garmin data value. In the example above, for stress data value 72, the red bar is comparatively short. That is because the participant only experienced a stress value of 72 a total of 44 times, which is low compared to the stress values of 6 or 7, which were experienced 649 times each.
    2. Percentile
      1. The gray-to-black Percentile bars show the percentile of the Garmin data value. In the example above, the stress value of 19 has a high percentile, 91.75%. It is in the top 91.75% of stress values for this participant. Hovering over a black bar will show the percentile.
  3. Count
    1. The total number of times which the participant experienced the Garmin data value. In the example above, the participant experienced the stress data value of 12 a total of 517 times.

Understanding the "View Triggers" page on the mEMA app


After creating a Garmin trigger, on the mEMA app, you will see a new option called "View Triggers".



On this screen you can see the following information:


Trigger type
“Trigger type” shows what type of Garmin trigger you’ve set up. If you have multiple Garmin triggers set for a participant in the mEMA app you will have the option of a drop-down that will let you select which Garmin trigger type you want to view.
Required Count
“Required Count”  shows how many recent samples of the Garmin data are required in order for the numerical average to work for a specific trigger.
Trigger Level
The “Trigger Level” is the value that the Garmin data needs to meet or exceed in order for the app to start a trigger.  At the time of setting the Trigger Level all of the then-current Garmin data is considered for the specified data type, and a calculation is performed to determine the numerical equivalent of the selected percentile. The resulting numerical equivalent remains in place (static) regardless of changes in the future Garmin data. In order to update/reset make any change to the configuration, or delete and re-set the trigger.
Undefined (iOS only)
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Operator (Android only)
The operator used for data comparison between the Trigger Level and the Current Level.
Minutes between
“Minutes between” defines how many minutes between a Garmin-triggered survey needs to pass in order for a new survey to be allowed to initiate as a result of Garmin triggers. Please note that this setting does not take into account non-Garmin-triggered surveys. So a momentary, repeating, or scheduled survey will not prevent the same survey from being triggered by Garmin data.  Whereas a Garmin-triggered survey taken “x” minutes before Garmin data again reached a trigger level and where “x” is less than the “Minutes between” value, the new triggering event would be suppressed.  
Current Count
“Current Count” shows how much Garmin data was collected up to the “Required Count”.
Current Level
“Current Level” provides the current average of the set Garmin data.
Last Trigger or Download
“Last Trigger” shows when was the last time the Garmin data reached a trigger point and triggered a survey. Note that this also gets set to the last time the participant downloaded/synchronized their mobile code – whichever is most recent.
Minutes Left
“Minutes Left” shows how many minutes are left until a new survey can be triggered by Garmin data.
Next trigger window
“Next Trigger Window” is when the next trigger window is available. Not to be confused with when the next trigger will be set. At this point in time mEMA can’t predict a future Garmin trigger.
Value List
“Value List” is a table that shows the Garmin data flow in real time for the set Garmin data type.



The video below gives a more detailed overview and example of setting Garmin triggers.