Wearable Device Validity in Measuring Steps, Energy Expenditure, and Heart Rate Across Age, Gender, and Body Mass Index: Data Analysis From a Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: This paper examined whether the criterion validity of step count (SC), energy expenditure (EE), and heart rate (HR) varied across studies depending on the average age, body mass index (BMI), and predominant gender of participants. Methods: Data from 1536 studies examining the validity of various wearable devices were used. Separate multilevel regression models examined the associations among age, gender, and BMI with device criterion validity assessed using mean absolute percent error (MAPE) at the study level. Results: MAPE values were reported in 970 studies for SC, 328 for EE, and 238 for HR, respectively. There were several significant differences in MAPE between age, gender, and BMI categories for SC, EE, and HR. SC MAPE was significantly different for older adults compared with adults. Compared with studies among normal-weight populations, MAPE was greater among studies with overweight samples for SC, HR, and EE. Comparing studies with more women than men, MAPE was significantly greater for EE and HR. Conclusions: There are important differences in the criterion validity of commercial wearable devices across studies of varying ages, BMIs, and genders. Few studies have examined differences in error between different age groups, particularly for EE and HR.

Actívatexto: Feasibility and Acceptability of a Mobile Intervention That Promotes Smoking Cessation and Physical Activity among Latinos

“…Participants were provided with a Fitbit Versa 4 device. Fitbit devices provide acceptably accurate measures of MVPA ( 34–37 ). Providing participants with a Fitbit device homogenized the tracking of physical activity compared with providing other wearable devices (e.g., Apple Watch) or using smartphone applications (e.g., Health by iOS), which would not have been standardized across all operating systems (e.g., Google's Android and Apple's iOS).…”

Accuracy of the Apple Watch Series 4 and Fitbit Versa for Assessing Energy Expenditure and Heart Rate of Wheelchair Users During Treadmill Wheelchair Propulsion: Cross-sectional Study

“…In contrast, sex could be inputted into the AW settings, and we found a significantly better estimated EE for male participants. Preliminary evidence [32] indicates that algorithms for wearable devices are developed mostly based on reference data from male participants and may therefore be less accurate for female participants. The AW's underestimation of EE increased with intensity, which contradicts findings from previous AW studies [24,33].…”