Abstract
BackgroundLack of physical activity (PA) is a risk factor for death and non-communicable disease. Despite this, more than one fourth of adults worldwide do not follow PA guidelines. As part of a feasibility study to test a complex intervention for increasing PA, we included a consumer-based activity tracker (AT) as a tool to measure PA outcomes and to track heart rate during exercise sessions. The aim of the present study was to identify factors that increase wear time when using a consumer-based AT for monitoring of participants in clinical research.MethodsSixteen participants aged 55–74 years, with obesity, sedentary lifestyle, and elevated cardiovascular risk were recruited to a 12-month feasibility study. Participants wore a Polar M430 AT to collect continuous PA data during a six-month intervention followed by 6 months of follow-up. We performed quantitative wear time analysis, tested the validity of the AT, and completed two rounds of qualitative interviews to investigate how individual wear-time was linked to participant responses.ResultsFrom 1 year of tracking, mean number of valid wear days were 292 (SD = 86), i.e. 80%. The Polar M430 provides acceptable measurements for total energy expenditure. Motivations for increased wear time were that participants were asked to wear it and the ability to track PA progress. Perceived usefulness included time keeping, heart rate- and sleep tracking, becoming more conscious about day-to-day activity, and improved understanding of which activity types were more effective for energy expenditure. Sources of AT annoyance were measurement inaccuracies and limited instruction for use. Suggestions for improvement were that the AT was big, unattractive, and complicated to use.ConclusionsAdherence to wearing a consumer-based AT was high. Results indicate that it is feasible to use a consumer-based AT to measure PA over a longer period. Potential success factors for increased wear time includes adequate instruction for AT use, allowing participants to choose different AT designs, and using trackers with accurate measurements. To identify accurate trackers, AT validation studies in the target cohort may be needed.Trial registrationU.S. National Library of Medicine, Clinical Trial registry: NCT03807323; Registered 16 September 2019 – Retrospectively registered.
Highlights
Lack of physical activity (PA) is a risk factor for death and non-communicable disease
In a previous study we have shown that the Polar M430 gives valid results for Total energy expenditure (TEE) in a wider age- and weightrange, when compared to a hip-worn ActiGraph wGT3XBT accelerometer (ActiGraph, Pensacola, FL, USA) [29]
We observed no difference in wear time between the different months, except one participant (8) who stopped using the activity tracker during the summer holiday (July), and one participant (13) who mostly stopped using the activity tracker after the intervention but resumed wearing it after the summer months
Summary
Lack of physical activity (PA) is a risk factor for death and non-communicable disease. Most lifestyle intervention studies use traditional research instruments (e.g. accelerometers, pedometers, doubly labelled water, and calorimetry) for objective PA and energy expenditure (EE) data collection [8], but the number of studies using consumer-based activity trackers are increasing [9]. Validation studies on such activity trackers show different results, but several recent reviews show that some metrics for some activity trackers are accurate enough to measure PA in research settings [9,10,11,12,13]. This is supported by earlier systematic reviews, where De Vries et al [15] found an increase of PA in adults with overweight and obesity, and Lewis et al [16] found similar findings among intervention studies on adults
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