Validity of the ithleteTM Smart Phone Application for Determining Ultra-Short-Term Heart Rate Variability
Open accessAbstract
The purpose of this investigation was to cross-validate the ithlete TM heart rate variability smart phone application with an electrocardiograph for determining ultra-short-term root mean square of successive R-R intervals. The root mean square of successive R-R intervals was simultaneously determined via electrocardiograph and ithlete TM at rest in twenty five healthy participants. There were no significant differences between the electrocardiograph and ithlete TM derived root mean square of successive R-R interval values (p > 0.05) and the correlation was near perfect (r = 0.99, p < 0.001). In addition, the ithlete TM revealed a Standard Error of the Estimate of 1.47 and Bland Altman plot showed that the limits of agreement ranged from 2.57 below to 2.63 above the constant error of -0.03. In conclusion, the ithlete TM appeared to provide a suitably accurate measure of root mean square of successive R-R intervals when compared to the electrocardiograph measures obtained in the laboratory within the current sample of healthy adult participants. The current study lays groundwork for future research determining the efficacy of ithlete TM for reflecting athletic training status over a chronic conditioning period.
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Ithlete smartphone app connected to either a chest belt or photoplethysmography has been shown to provide reliable HRV measurement.
“The development of smartphone apps connected to either a chest belt or photoplethysmography to measure HRV, such as Ithlete, have been shown to provide reliable HRV measurement (Flatt and Esco, 2013).”
From Heart Rate Variability and Cardiac Vagal Tone in Psychophysiological Research – Recommendations for Experiment Planning, Data Analysis, and Data Reporting (2017) · cites this paper as Flatt and Esco, 2013
The Methods and Discussion (pages not supplied) show that ithlete with a chest strap produced RMSSD values closely agreeing with laboratory ECG measurements in healthy adults under controlled conditions. The paper did not test ithlete with photoplethysmography, and the Discussion explicitly says repeated trials were not performed to test reliability. It supports measurement accuracy for the tested setup, not reliability for both sensor types. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Cites
STATISTICAL METHODS FOR ASSESSING AGREEMENT BETWEEN TWO METHODS OF CLINICAL MEASUREMENT
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Can Wearable Devices Accurately Measure Heart Rate Variability? A Systematic Review
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- Authors
- Flatt, A. A., & Esco, M. R.
- Affiliations
- Auburn University at Montgomery (US)
- Corresponding author
- Flatt, Andrew A.
- Venue
- Journal of Human Kinetics
- Publisher
- Termedia Sp. z.o.o.
- Published
- 2013-12-01
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 85-92
- ISSN
- 1640-5544 (ISSN-L)
- 1899-7562
- PMC
- PMC3916914
- OpenAlex
- W2099756521
- Cited by
- 115
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 3
- FWCI
- 4.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Journal of Human Kinetics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Non-Invasive Vital Sign Monitoring
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
- Keywords
- mobile application, heart rate variability, electrocardiograph, cross-validation, measurement accuracy, wearable heart rate monitoring
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