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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth

Date Submitted: Jun 2, 2020
Date Accepted: Feb 24, 2021

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Usability and Accuracy of a Smartwatch for the Assessment of Physical Activity in the Elderly Population: Observational Study

Martinato M, Lorenzoni G, Zanchi T, Bergamin A, Buratin A, Azzolina D, Gregori D

Usability and Accuracy of a Smartwatch for the Assessment of Physical Activity in the Elderly Population: Observational Study

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2021;9(5):e20966

DOI: 10.2196/20966

PMID: 33949953

PMCID: 8135023

Assessment of physical activity in the elderly population: usability and accuracy of a smartwatch

  • Matteo Martinato; 
  • Giulia Lorenzoni; 
  • Tommaso Zanchi; 
  • Alessia Bergamin; 
  • Alessia Buratin; 
  • Danila Azzolina; 
  • Dario Gregori

ABSTRACT

Background:

Regular physical activity (PA) contributes to the primary and secondary prevention of several chronic diseases and to reduce the risk of premature death. Physical inactivity is a modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease and for a variety of chronic disorders, such as diabetes mellitus, obesity, hypertension, bone and joint diseases (e.g., osteoporosis and osteoarthritis), depression and colon and breast cancer. Population aging, and the related increase in chronic diseases, has a major impact on the healthcare systems of most Western countries and will produce an even more significant effect in the future. Monitoring PA is a valuable method of determining whether people are performing enough PA so as to prevent chronic diseases or if they are showing early symptoms of those diseases.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to estimate the accuracy of wearable devices in quantifying the PA of elderly people in a real-life setting.

Methods:

Participants aged between 70 and 90 years old with the ability to walk safely without any walking aid for at least 300 m, who had no walking disabilities or previous episodes of falling while walking in the last 12 months, were asked to walk 150 m at their preferred pace wearing a vívoactive® HR device by Garmin®, and actual steps were monitored and tallied by a researcher using a hand-tally counter to assess the performance of the device at a natural speed. A Bland-Altman plot for the difference between manually counted steps and wearable device measured steps is reported. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was also computed (with a 95% confidence interval) between step measurements. The generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) ICCs were also estimated, providing a random effect term (random intercept) for the individual measurements (Gold Standard and Device). Both adjusted and conditional ICCs were computed for the GLMM models considering separately the effect of age, sex, BMI, and obesity. Analyses were performed using R software with the rms package.

Results:

Twenty-three females and twenty-six males were enrolled in the study. The median age of the participants was 75 years. The Bland-Altman plot revealed that, excluding one observation, all the differences across measurements were in the confidence bounds, demonstrating the substantial agreement between the step count measurements. Such results are also confirmed by an ICC equal to 0.98 (0.96-0.99), demonstrating excellent agreement between the two sets of measurements.

Conclusions:

The level of accuracy of wearable devices in quantifying the PA of elderly people in a real-life setting that was found in this study supports the idea of considering twist-wearable nonmedical devices (widely available in nonspecialized stores) as reliable tools for measuring the level of PA in an elderly population. Both healthcare professionals and informal caregivers could monitor the level of PA of their patients.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Martinato M, Lorenzoni G, Zanchi T, Bergamin A, Buratin A, Azzolina D, Gregori D

Usability and Accuracy of a Smartwatch for the Assessment of Physical Activity in the Elderly Population: Observational Study

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2021;9(5):e20966

DOI: 10.2196/20966

PMID: 33949953

PMCID: 8135023

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