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Comparison of a Wearable Tracker with Actigraph for Classifying Physical Activity Intensity and Heart Rate in

Seoungki Kang1, Youngdeok Kim2, Wonwoo Byun3

  • 1Graduate School of Education, Yongin Univerisity, 134 Yongindaehak-ro, cheoin-gu, Yongin-si 449-714, Korea.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
|July 28, 2019
PubMed

Insights

The Fitbit Charge HR (FCH) accurately classifies sedentary behavior in children. It also shows comparable validity to research-grade monitors for moderate to vigorous physical activity (PA), with high reliability across devices.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric physical activity monitoring
  • Wearable sensor technology validation
  • Biomedical engineering and kinesiology

Background:

  • Accurate assessment of physical activity (PA) intensity in children is crucial for understanding health behaviors.
  • Consumer-grade wearable devices like the Fitbit Charge HR (FCH) are increasingly popular but require validation against research-grade instruments.
  • Existing research often focuses on adult populations, necessitating specific studies in pediatric cohorts.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the validity and reliability of the Fitbit Charge HR (FCH) for classifying physical activity (PA) intensity in children.
  • To compare the performance of the FCH against ActiGraph (AG) accelerometers and indirect calorimetry.
  • To assess the FCH's accuracy in distinguishing between sedentary, light, and moderate-to-vigorous PA categories.

Main Methods:

  • Forty-three children participated, engaging in 12 different physical activities (PAs) of varying intensities.
  • Participants simultaneously wore the FCH, ActiGraph (AG) accelerometers on both wrists, a Polar heart rate monitor, and a portable indirect calorimeter.
  • Data from FCH and AG were compared against indirect calorimetry for classifying PA intensity levels and for step measurements.

Main Results:

  • The FCH demonstrated the highest classification accuracy for sedentary behavior (81.1%).
  • Crouter's algorithm on the non-dominant wrist achieved the highest classification accuracy for light intensity PA (72.4%) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (81.8%).
  • The FCH showed comparable validity to AG for moderate-to-vigorous PA (70.8% vs. 81.8%) and high reliability in step measurements (ICC = 0.92–0.94).

Conclusions:

  • The Fitbit Charge HR (FCH) offers good validity for assessing sedentary behavior in children.
  • FCH demonstrates similar validity to research-grade monitors for classifying moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.
  • High agreement and reliability were observed between the FCH and ActiGraph accelerometers across various measurements.

Keywords:
Fitbitaccelerometerphysical activity classification

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