Reliability and validity of ten consumer activity trackers
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Activity trackers can potentially stimulate users to increase their physical activity behavior. The aim of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of ten consumer activity trackers for measuring step count in both laboratory and free-living conditions. METHOD: Healthy adult volunteers (n = 33) walked twice on a treadmill (4.8 km/h) for 30 min while wearing ten different activity trackers (i.e. Lumoback, Fitbit Flex, Jawbone Up, Nike+ Fuelband SE, Misfit Shine, Withings Pulse, Fitbit Zip, Omron HJ-203, Yamax Digiwalker SW-200 and Moves mobile application). In free-living conditions, 56 volunteers wore the same activity trackers for one working day. Test-retest reliability was analyzed with the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC). Validity was evaluated by comparing each tracker with the gold standard (Optogait system for laboratory and ActivPAL for free-living conditions), using paired samples t-tests, mean absolute percentage errors, correlations and Bland-Altman plots. RESULTS: Test-retest analysis revealed high reliability for most trackers except for the Omron (ICC .14), Moves app (ICC .37) and Nike+ Fuelband (ICC .53). The mean absolute percentage errors of the trackers in laboratory and free-living conditions respectively, were: Lumoback (-0.2, -0.4), Fibit Flex (-5.7, 3.7), Jawbone Up (-1.0, 1.4), Nike+ Fuelband (-18, -24), Misfit Shine (0.2, 1.1), Withings Pulse (-0.5, -7.9), Fitbit Zip (-0.3, 1.2), Omron (2.5, -0.4), Digiwalker (-1.2, -5.9), and Moves app (9.6, -37.6). Bland-Altman plots demonstrated that the limits of agreement varied from 46 steps (Fitbit Zip) to 2422 steps (Nike+ Fuelband) in the laboratory condition, and 866 steps (Fitbit Zip) to 5150 steps (Moves app) in the free-living condition. CONCLUSION: The reliability and validity of most trackers for measuring step count is good. The Fitbit Zip is the most valid whereas the reliability and validity of the Nike+ Fuelband is low.
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Fitbit One, Zip and Charge HR, Jawbone Up, LumoBack, and Withings Pulse have all demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability for step count (ICC >.90).
“Fitbit One, Zip and Charge HR, Jawbone Up, LumoBack, and Withings Pulse have all demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability for step count (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient [ICC] >.90) [78-80]”
From Consumer-based wearable activity trackers increase physical activity participation: systematic review and meta-analysis (2019) · cites this paper as [79]
The Results (Test-retest reliability, Table 1) classify LumoBack, Fitbit Zip and Withings Pulse as having excellent test-retest reliability for step count. They classify Jawbone Up as good (ICC 0.83), not excellent; the Methods (Study design) list Fitbit Flex but not Fitbit One or Charge HR among the tested trackers. Table 1 reports ICCs of 0.90 for LumoBack and Zip and 0.92 for Withings Pulse, so its displayed values do not establish >0.90 for all three. (LLM, conf=0.90)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe Fitbit ZipTM was reported to be the most valid of the ten consumer activity trackers.
“which was also reported to be the most valid of the ten trackers [61].”
A recent study comparing reliability and validity of ten consumer activity trackers reported excellent test-retest reliability of the Fitbit ZipTM.
“A recent study comparing the reliability and validity of ten consumer activity trackers reported excellent test-retest reliability of the Fitbit ZipTM”
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- Authors
- Kooiman, T. J. M., Dontje, M. L., Sprenger, S. R., Krijnen, W. P., van der Schans, C. P., & de Groot, M.
- Affiliations
- Hanze University of Applied Sciences (NL)
- University of Groningen (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Kooiman, Thea J. M.
- Venue
- BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation
- Published
- 2015-10-12
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 24-24
- ISSN
- 2052-1847 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4603296
- OpenAlex
- W2151278576
- Cited by
- 360
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 47 · 2019: 67 · 2018: 67 · 2017: 47 · 2016: 33 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 35.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BMC Sports Science Medicine and Rehabilitation (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Context-Aware Activity Recognition Systems
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Keywords
- wearable activity trackers, step counting, wearable devices, test-retest reliability, measurement validity, physical activity monitoring, Fitbit, free-living conditions, treadmill walking, OptoGait, activPAL
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