Can We Use Consumer-Wearable Activity Tracker Fitbit in Parkinson Disease?

Abstract

Consumer-wearable activity trackers have been used for monitoring healthrelated metrics to estimate steps, distance, physical activity, energy expenditure, and sleep. The purpose of this mini review was to summarize the evidence for validity of the most popular wrist-worn activity tracker (Fitbit) to estimate those health-related metrics in Parkinson disease. We researched full-length English studies in PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and Scopus, through September, 2021. In total, 27 studies and a textbook description were included in the review. To adapt consumer-wearable activity trackers for evaluating health-related metrics in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, there may be some points to be elucidated and conquered. First, measurement accuracy and precision are required. Second, inter-device reliability for measuring steps, distance, and energy expenditure must be considered. Third, wearability: there are some types of device such as wrist-worn, ankle-worn, belt-fixed, and so on. Overall, Fitbit has advantage for these points. This mini review indicates that Fitbit has enough measurement accuracy and precision to estimate health-related metrics of PD patients including amount of step, physical activity energy expenditure, and quality of sleep.