Validation of the Fitbit One® for physical activity measurement at an upper torso attachment site
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: The upper torso is recommended as an attachment site for the Fitbit One(®), one of the most common wireless physical activity trackers in the consumer market, and could represent a viable alternative to wrist- and hip-attachment sites. The objective of this study was to provide evidence concerning the validity of the Fitbit One(®) attached to the upper torso for measuring step counts and energy expenditure among female adults. RESULTS: Thirteen female adults completed a four-phase treadmill exercise protocol (1.9, 3.0, 4.0, and 5.2 mph). Participants were fitted with three Fitbit(®) trackers (two Fitbit One(®) trackers: one on the upper torso, one on the hip; and a wrist-based Fitbit Flex(®)). Steps were assessed by manual counting of a video recording. Energy expenditure was measured by gas exchange indirect calorimetry. Concordance correlation coefficients of Fitbit-estimated step counts to observed step counts for the upper torso-attached Fitbit One(®), hip-attached Fitbit One(®) and wrist-attached Fitbit Flex(®) were 0.98 (95% CI 0.97-0.99), 0.99 (95% CI 0.99-0.99), and 0.75 (95% CI 0.70-0.79), respectively. The percent error for step count estimates from the upper torso attachment site was ≤3% for all walking and running speeds. Upper torso step count estimates showed similar accuracy relative to hip attachment of the Fitbit One(®) and were more accurate than the wrist-based Fitbit Flex(®). Similar results were obtained for energy expenditure estimates. Energy expenditure estimates for the upper torso attachment site yielded relative percent errors that ranged from 9 to 19% and were more accurate than the wrist-based Fitbit Flex(®), but less accurate than hip attachment of the Fitbit One(®). CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that physical activity measures obtained from the upper torso attachment site of the Fitbit One(®) are accurate across different walking and running speeds in female adults. The upper torso attachment site of the Fitbit One(®) outperformed the wrist-based Fitbit Flex(®) and yielded similar step count estimates to hip-attachment. These data support the upper torso as an alternative attachment site for the Fitbit One(®).
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Five studies (50 comparisons) reported interdevice reliability for energy expenditure, with analyzed sample sizes ranging from 13 to 29.
“Five studies (50 comparisons) reported on interdevice reliability [85,113,116,117,166], with analyzed sample sizes ranging from 13 [117] to 29 [113].”
From Reliability and Validity of Commercially Available Wearable Devices for Measuring Steps, Energy Expenditure, and Heart Rate: Systematic Review (2020) · cites this paper as [117]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
STATISTICAL METHODS FOR ASSESSING AGREEMENT BETWEEN TWO METHODS OF CLINICAL MEASUREMENT
Martin Bland, J., & Altman, D. (1986) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(86)90837-8 · Cited by 47,965 · see citing works
A concordance correlation coefficient to evaluate reproducibility.
Lin, L. I.-K. (1989) · Biometrics · doi:10.2307/2532051 · Cited by 8,785 · see citing works
Systematic review of the validity and reliability of consumer-wearable activity trackers
Evenson, K. R., Goto, M. M., & Furberg, R. D. (2015) · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · doi:10.1186/s12966-015-0314-1 · Cited by 1,232 · see citing works
Evolution of accelerometer methods for physical activity research
Troiano, R. P., McClain, J. J., Brychta, R. J., & Chen, K. Y. (2014) · British Journal of Sports Medicine · doi:10.1136/bjsports-2014-093546 · Cited by 968 · see citing works
Validity of 10 Electronic Pedometers for Measuring Steps, Distance, and Energy Cost
CROUTER, S. E., SCHNEIDER, P. L., KARABULUT, M., & BASSETT, D. R. (2003) · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise · doi:10.1249/01.mss.0000078932.61440.a2 · Cited by 899 · see citing works
Accuracy of Smartphone Applications and Wearable Devices for Tracking Physical Activity Data
Case, M. A., Burwick, H. A., Volpp, K. G., & Patel, M. S. (2015) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.2014.17841 · Cited by 694 · see citing works
Age-related differences in walking stability
Menz, H. B. (2003) · Age and Ageing · doi:10.1093/ageing/32.2.137 · Cited by 619 · see citing works
Randomized Trial of a Fitbit-Based Physical Activity Intervention for Women
Cadmus-Bertram, L. A., Marcus, B. H., Patterson, R. E., Parker, B. A., & Morey, B. L. (2015) · American Journal of Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2015.01.020 · Cited by 469 · see citing works
Ferguson, T., Rowlands, A. V., Olds, T., & Maher, C. (2015) · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · doi:10.1186/s12966-015-0201-9 · Cited by 468 · see citing works
(2015) · doi:10.1145/2750858.2804288 · Cited by 409 · see citing works
Fitbit®: An accurate and reliable device for wireless physical activity tracking
Diaz, K. M., Krupka, D. J., Chang, M. J., Peacock, J., Ma, Y., Goldsmith, J., Schwartz, J. E., & Davidson, K. W. (2015) · International Journal of Cardiology · doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2015.03.038 · Cited by 405 · see citing works
Self-citationAccelerometers and pedometers: methodology and clinical application
Corder, K., Brage, S., & Ekelund, U. (2007) · Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care · doi:10.1097/mco.0b013e328285d883 · Cited by 339 · see citing works
Validation of the Fitbit One activity monitor device during treadmill walking
Takacs, J., Pollock, C. L., Guenther, J. R., Bahar, M., Napier, C., & Hunt, M. A. (2013) · Journal of science and medicine in sport · doi:10.1016/j.jsams.2013.10.241 · Cited by 322 · see citing works
Calibration and Validation of Wearable Monitors
BASSETT, D. R., Rowlands, A. V., & Trost, S. G. (2011) · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise · doi:10.1249/mss.0b013e3182399cf7 · Cited by 293 · see citing works
van Hees, V. T., Renström, F., Wright, A., Gradmark, A., Catt, M., Chen, K. Y., Löf, M., Bluck, L. J. C., Pomeroy, J. J., Wareham, N. J., et al. (2011) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022922 · Cited by 289 · see citing works
Validity of activity monitors in health and chronic disease: a systematic review
Remoortel, H. V., Giavedoni, S., Raste, Y., Burtin, C., Louvaris, Z., Gimeno‐Santos, E., Langer, D., Glendenning, G. A., Hopkinson, N. S., Vogiatzis, I., et al. (2012) · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · doi:10.1186/1479-5868-9-84 · Cited by 277 · see citing works
Parvataneni, K., Ploeg, L., Olney, S. J., et al. (2008) · Clinical Biomechanics · doi:10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2008.07.002 · Cited by 229 · see citing works
Adam Noah, J., Spierer, D. K., Gu, J., & Bronner, S. (2013) · Journal of Medical Engineering & Technology · doi:10.3109/03091902.2013.831135 · Cited by 202 · see citing works
Validity and Reliability of Omron Pedometers for Prescribed and Self-Paced Walking
Holbrook, E. A., Barreira, T. V., & Kang, M. (2009) · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise · doi:10.1249/mss.0b013e3181886095 · Cited by 191 · see citing works
Use and Adoption Challenges of Wearable Activity Trackers
Shih, P. C., Han, K., Poole, E. S., Rosson, M. B., & Carroll, J. M. (2015) · Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) · Cited by 178 · see citing works
Predicting Energy Expenditure of Physical Activity Using Hip- and Wrist-Worn Accelerometers
Chen, K. Y., Acra, S. A., Majchrzak, K. M., Donahue, C. L., Baker, L., Clemens, L. H., Sun, M., & Buchowski, M. S. (2003) · Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics · doi:10.1089/152091503322641088 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Ethnic differences in physical activity and metabolic risk: the Dallas Heart Study.
Lakoski, S., & Kozlitina, J. (2014) · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise · doi:10.1249/mss.0000000000000211 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Jarrahi, M. H. (2015) · Proceedings of the ... Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences/Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences · doi:10.1109/hicss.2015.214 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Category 2 enhanced phenotyping at baseline assessment visit in last 100-150,000 participants
Sk, C. (2009) · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- [20]Lazar A Koehler C Tanenbaum J Why We Use and Abandon Smart Devices ACM Int Jt Conf Pervasive Ubiquitous Comput 2015
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Fuller, D., Colwell, E., Low, J., Orychock, K., Tobin, M. A., Simango, B., Buote, R., Van Heerden, D., Luan, H., Cullen, K., et al. (2020) · JMIR mHealth and uHealth · doi:10.2196/18694 · Cited by 715 · see citing works
Accuracy of Fitbit Devices: Systematic Review and Narrative Syntheses of Quantitative Data
Feehan, L. M., Geldman, J., Sayre, E. C., Park, C., Ezzat, A. M., Yoo, J. Y., Hamilton, C. B., & Li, L. C. (2018) · JMIR mHealth and uHealth · doi:10.2196/10527 · Cited by 616 · see citing works
Henriksen, A., Haugen Mikalsen, M., Woldaregay, A. Z., Muzny, M., Hartvigsen, G., Hopstock, L. A., & Grimsgaard, S. (2018) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.9157 · Cited by 542 · see citing works
Shin, G., Jarrahi, M. H., Fei, Y., Karami, A., Gafinowitz, N., Byun, A., & Lu, X. (2019) · Journal of Biomedical Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.jbi.2019.103153 · Cited by 326 · see citing works
- Authors
- Diaz, K. M., Krupka, D. J., Chang, M. J., Shaffer, J. A., Ma, Y., Goldsmith, J., Schwartz, J. E., & Davidson, K. W.
- Affiliations
- Columbia University Irving Medical Center (US)
- University of Colorado Denver (US)
- Columbia University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Diaz, Keith M.
- ORCID
- Venue
- BMC Research Notes
- Published
- 2016-04-12
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 213-213
- ISSN
- 1756-0500 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4828816
- OpenAlex
- W2341847801
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 6
- FWCI
- 4.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMC Research Notes (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01-HL116470-02S1, R01-HL115941)
- 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 count accuracy, energy expenditure estimation, treadmill exercise, adult women, device validation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Calorimetry, Indirect, Energy Metabolism, Exercise Test, Female, Humans, Middle Aged, Running, Reproducibility of Results, Exercise, Walking, Monitoring, Ambulatory, Young Adult, Torso, Accelerometry
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
