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Feasibility and Reliability of Wearable Devices in Measuring Caloric Intake: Results from a Pilot Study
Author(s) -
Gregori Dario,
Minto Clara,
Lanera Corrado,
Lorenzoni Giulia
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.302.6
Subject(s) - calorie , meal , medicine , caloric intake , reliability (semiconductor) , caloric theory , food intake , wearable computer , environmental health , computer science , obesity , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics , embedded system
Given the key role played by lifestyles in the prediction, prevention, and treatment of chronic diseases, dietary assessment plays a key role in clinical research. However, traditional methods employed for dietary assessment (e.g. food frequency questionnaires and 24‐hour dietary recall) presents several limitations, such as underreporting, poor precision in reporting portion's size and details of food preparation. In recent years it has been advocated the role of wearable devices in estimating subjects' actual food intake, overcoming limitations of traditional methods. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the feasibility and reliability of a wearable device in estimating caloric intake of a standard fast‐food meal via bites counter. Such device consisted on a Bite Counter (Bite Technologies®), a watch that tracks wrist motion to count bites and estimate calories intake through an ad hoc algorithm. 18 subjects were enrolled, aged 20–35 years, equally distributed between males and females and observed in a Mac Donald's setting. Subjects were requested to wear the Bite Counter on the wrist of the dominant hand, and they were served with a standard fast‐food meal (consisting of a hamburger and French fries). It was estimated caloric intake of each subject on the basis of bites recorded by the watch and such estimation was compared to subject's actual caloric intake. Correlation among estimated Kcalories and actual consumed calories was significant (p=0.04) although not very useful in terms of day‐by day usage (correlation= 0.489). Results of the present study show a low feasibility and reliability of estimating Kcalories using bites, despite the fact that the assessment was performed in an experimental setting, serving subjects with a standard meal. These findings showed that also such innovative devices seem to present several limitations, given the great variability in food intake (e.g. the size of bit of food). Further research is needed in order to improve feasibility and reliability of such devices. Support or Funding Information No funding to discloseAssociation between caloric intake and bites