Validation of Polar OH1 optical heart rate sensor for moderate and high intensity physical activities

Abstract

Background Optical measurement techniques and recent advances in wearable technology have made heart rate (HR) sensing simpler and more affordable. Objectives The Polar OH1 is an arm worn optical heart rate monitor. The objectives of this study are two-fold; 1) to validate the OH1 optical HR sensor with the gold standard of HR measurement, electrocardiography (ECG), over a range of moderate to high intensity physical activities, 2) to validate wearing the OH1 at the temple as an alternative location to its recommended wearing location around the forearm and upper arm. Methods Twenty-four individuals participated in a physical exercise protocol, by walking on a treadmill and riding a stationary spin bike at different speeds while the criterion measure, ECG and Polar OH1 HR were recorded simultaneously at three different body locations; forearm, upper arm and the temple. Time synchronised HR data points were compared using Bland-Altman analyses and intraclass correlation. Results The intraclass correlation between the ECG and Polar OH1, for the aggregated data, was 0.99 and the estimated mean bias ranged 0.27–0.33 bpm for the sensor locations. The three sensors exhibited a 95% limit of agreement (LoA: forearm 5.22, -4.68 bpm; upper arm 5.15, -4.49; temple 5.22, -4.66). The mean of the ECG HR for the aggregated data was 112.15 ± 24.52 bpm. The intraclass correlation of HR values below and above this mean were 0.98 and 0.99 respectively. The reported mean bias ranged 0.38–0.47 bpm (95% LoA: forearm 6.14, -5.38 bpm; upper arm 6.07, -5.13 bpm; temple 6.09, -5.31 bpm), and 0.15–0.16 bpm (95% LoA: forearm 3.99, -3.69 bpm; upper arm 3.90, -3.58 bpm; temple 4.06, -3.76 bpm) respectively. During different exercise intensities, the intraclass correlation ranged 0.95–0.99 for the three sensor locations. During the entire protocol, the estimated mean bias was in the range -0.15–0.55 bpm, 0.01–0.53 bpm and -0.37–0.48 bpm, for the forearm, upper arm and temple locations respectively. The corresponding upper limits of 95% LoA were 3.22–7.03 bpm, 3.25–6.82 bpm and 3.18–7.04 bpm while the lower limits of 95% LoA were -6.36–(-2.35) bpm, -6.46–(-2.30) bpm and -7.42–(-2.41) bpm. Conclusion Polar OH1 demonstrates high level of agreement with the criterion measure ECG HR, thus can be used as a valid measure of HR in lab and field settings during moderate and high intensity physical activities.

Can Childcare Work Be Designed to Promote High Intensity Physical Activity for Improved Fitness and Health? A Proof of Concept Study of the Goldilocks Principle

“…Cardiorespiratory fitness (VO 2max ) was estimated based on the difference in heart rate between an initial low standard workload and a subsequent higher ‘final’ workload [ 37 ]. Heart rate during the ergometer test was monitored using an arm-worn Polar ® OH1 (Polar Electro Oy, Kempele, Finland) heart rate monitor, which has been shown to provide accurate heart rate data [ 38 , 39 ]. A worker’s fitness level was classified into one of three categories; “below average”, “average” and “above average”.…”

Validation of the Polar OH1 and M600 optical heart rate sensors during front crawl swim training

“…The Polar OH1 optical HR sensor (OH1) is a PPG device which can be used on different parts of the body. A recent study showed a high accuracy of the OH1 on the temple compared to ECG measurements during moderate to vigorous exercise on land [12]. The question arises if HR measurements on the temple with the OH1 also provide valid data during predominantly front crawl swimming with different intensities.…”

Effects of Dynamic Resilience on the Reactivity of Vagally Mediated Heart Rate Variability

“…The RR intervals were calculated by taking the time differences between two successive R-peaks. The derived RR-series comprising of the RR intervals was examined and corrected for any missed and/or extra beats using a quotient filter (Bartels et al, 2017 ; Hettiarachchi et al, 2019 ). This yielded the inter-beat-interval (IBI) series which is used for the vmHRV metric calculation in millisecond (ms) units.…”