Sensitivity of the Misfit Shine™ to Detect Changes in Laboratory-Based and Free-Living Physical Activity

Abstract

Purpose: Determine the sensitivity of the Misfit Shine™ (MS) to detect changes in physical activity (PA) measures (steps, "points," kCals) in laboratory (LAB) and free-living (FL) conditions. Methods: Twenty-one participants wore the MS and ActiGraph GT3X+™ accelerometer (AG) at the hip and dominant-wrist during three, one-hour LAB sessions: sedentary (SS), sedentary plus walking (SW), and sedentary plus jogging (SJ). Direct observation (DO) of steps served as the criterion measure. Devices were also worn during two FL conditions: 1) active week (ACT) and 2) inactive week (INACT). For LAB and FL, significant differences were examined using paired t-tests and linear mixed effects models, respectively. Linear mixed effects models were used to estimate differences between MS estimated steps and DO (α ≤ 0.05). Results: For all hip-worn MS measures and wrist-worn MS estimates of steps and "points," there was a significant increase (p < .05) from SS to SJ. However, wrist-worn MS kCal estimates were greater for SJ, compared to SS and SW, which were similar to each other (95% CI [95.5, 152.8] and [141.1, 378.9], respectively). Compared with DO, MS hip significantly underestimated steps by 3.5%, while MS wrist significantly overestimated steps by 4.2%. During FL conditions, all MS measures were sensitive to changes between ACT and INACT (p < .0001). Conclusion: Although there were systematic errors in step estimates from the MS, it was sensitive to changes during LAB and FL, and may be a useful tool for interventionists where tracking changes in PA is an important exposure or outcome variable.