Examining The Validity Of Fitbit Charge HR For Measuring Heart Rate In Free-living Conditions

Abstract

Fitness trackers are devices or applications for monitoring and tracking fitness-related met-rics such as distance walked or run, calorie consumption, quality of sleep and heart rate. Since accurate heart rate monitoring is essential in fitness training, the objective of this study was to assess the accuracy and precision of the Fitbit Charge 2 for measuring heart rate with respect to a gold standard electrocardiograph. Fifteen healthy participants were asked to ride a stationary bike for 10 minutes and their heart rate was simultaneously recorded from each device. Results showed that the Fitbit Charge 2 underestimates the heart rate. Although the mean bias in measuring heart rate was a modest-5.9 bpm (95% CI:-6.1 to-5.6 bpm), the limits of agreement, which indicate the precision of individual measurements , between the Fitbit Charge 2 and criterion measure were wide (+16.8 to-28.5 bpm) indicating that an individual heart rate measure could plausibly be underestimated by almost 30 bpm.

Assessment of the Fitbit Charge 2 for monitoring heart rate

“…All wrist worn activity trackers rely on PPG and use proprietary HR-derived algorithms and several recent studies investigated the accuracy of wearable devices for measuring HR [ 10 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Here, we critically assessed the accuracy of the Fitbit Charge 2 (Fitbit Inc., San Francisco, CA) with respect to HR monitoring and compared its performance to a gold standard electrocardiograph.…”

“…Based on the manufacturer’s information, Fitbit uses PurePulse light-emitting diodes on the skin-facing surface monitor blood volume changes to continuously estimate HR [ 23 ]. In the past 2 years, several studies have been published on the most recent predecessor of this device, the Charge HR [ 10 , 13 , 14 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 20 , 21 ]. The large majority of these studies yielded similar results (i.e.…”

The feasibility of using real-time, objective measurements of physiological stress among law enforcement officers in Dallas, Texas

“…Third, although the reliability and validity of the FitBit's heart rate measure has been established (de Man et al, 2016;Keill, 2016;Lee et al, 2016;Stahl et al, 2016) participants suggested that the device may not accurately capture elevated heart rates at all times. Future studies should seek to use medical-grade devices that are more thoroughly tested for reliability and validity.…”

“…The FitBit Charge 2 captures data on second-by-second heart rate, steps, metabolic equivalents, calories burned, active minutes and floors climbed, as well as sleep quantity and sleep cycles. The Charge 2 monitors heart rate (Gorny et al, 2017), sleep quality and duration, energy expenditure and other physical health indicators with a high degree of validity (de Man et al, 2016;Keill, 2016;Lee et al, 2016;Stahl et al, 2016). Participants were instructed on how to wear the devices by three trained research assistants.…”

Accuracy Verification of Heart Rate and Energy Consumption Tracking Devices to Develop Forest-Based Customized Health Care Service Programs

“…The number of people who visit forests for healthcare has been increasing annually (Korea Forest Service, 2017), and exercises in forests were reported to increase physical strength such as the muscular strength of the lower body, flexibility, agility-balance and cardiorespiratory endurance (Choi et al, 2014;Lee et al, 2016;Choi et al, 2018), and to have a positive impact on physiological variations including the blood sugar of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus patients, melatonin, superoxide dismutase (SOD), lipoperoxide, heart rate and blood pressure (Park, 2010;Shin et al, 2011;Lee et al, 2017).…”