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Comparative Study
. 2016 Mar;48(3):457-65.
doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000000778.

Twenty-four Hours of Sleep, Sedentary Behavior, and Physical Activity with Nine Wearable Devices

Mary E Rosenberger  1 , Matthew P Buman, William L Haskell, Michael V McConnell, Laura L Carstensen
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Twenty-four Hours of Sleep, Sedentary Behavior, and Physical Activity with Nine Wearable Devices

Mary E Rosenberger et al. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2016 Mar.

Abstract

Getting enough sleep, exercising, and limiting sedentary activities can greatly contribute to disease prevention and overall health and longevity. Measuring the full 24-h activity cycle-sleep, sedentary behavior (SED), light-intensity physical activity (LPA), and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA)-may now be feasible using small wearable devices.

Purpose: This study compared nine devices for accuracy in a 24-h activity measurement.

Methods: Adults (n = 40, 47% male) wore nine devices for 24 h: ActiGraph GT3X+, activPAL, Fitbit One, GENEactiv, Jawbone Up, LUMOback, Nike Fuelband, Omron pedometer, and Z-Machine. Comparisons (with standards) were made for total sleep time (Z-machine), time spent in SED (activPAL), LPA (GT3X+), MVPA (GT3X+), and steps (Omron). Analysis included mean absolute percent error, equivalence testing, and Bland-Altman plots.

Results: Error rates ranged from 8.1% to 16.9% for sleep, 9.5% to 65.8% for SED, 19.7% to 28.0% for LPA, 51.8% to 92% for MVPA, and 14.1% to 29.9% for steps. Equivalence testing indicated that only two comparisons were significantly equivalent to standards: the LUMOback for SED and the GT3X+ for sleep. Bland-Altman plots indicated GT3X+ had the closest measurement for sleep, LUMOback for SED, GENEactiv for LPA, Fitbit for MVPA, and GT3X+ for steps.

Conclusions: Currently, no device accurately captures activity data across the entire 24-h day, but the future of activity measurement should aim for accurate 24-h measurement as a goal. Researchers should continue to select measurement devices on the basis of their primary outcomes of interest.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures: The authors have no other potential conflicts-of-interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Pie chart with current recommendations and estimates of the optimal 24-hour physical activity cycle.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean absolute percent error for the various devices and five activity domains.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Equivalence testing for all of the devices in all domains. Shaded areas are equivalence zones (±10% of the mean), and error bars indicate the 90% confidence interval for the mean measurement. * Equivalent measures.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Buman MP, Hekler EB, Haskell WL, et al. Objective light-intensity physical activity associations with rated health in older adults. Am. J. Epidemiol. 2010;172:1155–1165. - PMC - PubMed

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