Publication Date

2017

Journal or Book Title

Journal of Medical Internet Research

Abstract

Background: Commercial activity trackers are growing in popularity among adults and some are beginning to be marketed to children. There is, however, a paucity of independent research examining the validity of these devices to detect physical activity of different intensity levels.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the validity of the output from 3 commercial youth-oriented activity trackers in 3 phases: (1) orbital shaker, (2) structured indoor activities, and (3) 4 days of free-living activity.

Methods: Four units of each activity tracker (Movband [MB], Sqord [SQ], and Zamzee [ZZ]) were tested in an orbital shaker for 5-minutes at three frequencies (1.3, 1.9, and 2.5 Hz). Participants for Phase 2 (N=14) and Phase 3 (N=16) were 6-12 year old children (50% male). For Phase 2, participants completed 9 structured activities while wearing each tracker, the ActiGraph GT3X+ (AG) research accelerometer, and a portable indirect calorimetry system to assess energy expenditure (EE). For Phase 3, participants wore all 4 devices for 4 consecutive days. Correlation coefficients, linear models, and non-parametric statistics evaluated the criterion and construct validity of the activity tracker output.

Results: Output from all devices was significantly associated with oscillation frequency (r=.92-.99). During Phase 2, MB and ZZ only differentiated sedentary from light intensity (PPr=.76, .86, and .59 for the MB, SQ, and ZZ, respectively).

Conclusions: Across study phases, the SQ demonstrated stronger validity than the MB and ZZ. The validity of youth-oriented activity trackers may directly impact their effectiveness as behavior modification tools, demonstrating a need for more research on such devices.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.6360

Volume

19

Issue

7

License

UMass Amherst Open Access Policy

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Funder

UMass SOAR Fund, Reebok Foundation

Included in

Public Health Commons

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