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An analysis of how consumer physical activity monitors are used in biomedical research
Author(s) -
Wright Stephen P,
Collier Scott R,
Brown Tyish S,
Sandberg Kathryn
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.1020.24
Subject(s) - clinical trial , medicine , medline , physical activity , physical therapy , adverse effect , gerontology , political science , law
BACKGROUND Biomedical researchers are very interested in measuring physical activity because sedentary lifestyle and lack of physical activity are well‐established risk factors for chronic disease and adverse health outcomes. Many consumer physical activity monitors have accuracies similar to research‐grade monitors for measuring steps and offer a relatively new tool for measuring physical activity in an ecological setting. AIM To analyze how consumer physical activity monitors are currently used in biomedical research. METHOD Searches were conducted in Ovid Medline, PubMed Medline, clinicaltrials.gov, and NIH RePorter using search terms including Fitbit, Jawbone, Apple watch, Garmin, Polar, Microsoftband, Misfit, Nike, Withings, and Xiaomi. Results were quantitated by category: condition/topic, intervention, enrollment status, study type and design, participant age, funding mechanism, and primary outcome. RESULTS Fitbit devices were the most common consumer physical activity monitors used in published work (89%), clinical trials (83%), and NIH‐funded research (95%). Validity studies represented the plurality (19/40) of published studies involving consumer physical activity monitors. The design of the majority of clinical trials (116/127) and unique NIH‐funded grants (20/25) involving Fitbit are interventional. The most common primary outcome measure reported in clinical trials using Fitbit is physical activity (50/127), with biomarkers of health (e.g., blood pressure, HbA1c, fasting glucose) being the second most prominent. The most common clinical conditions studied in clinical trials are mental and brain related (74/127), second most being body weight related (62/127). CONCLUSION The current state and potential growth of the consumer monitor technology is transforming biomedical research, and is enabling us to ask new and more granular questions about physical activity in health and disease. Support or Funding Information This work was supported by the following grants: TL1‐TR001431 (SPW), UL1‐TR001409 (TSHB, SPW, SRC, KS) and R01‐HL119380 (KS).