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Assessment of the Fitbit Charge 2 for monitoring heart rate - PubMed

  • ️Mon Jan 01 2018

Assessment of the Fitbit Charge 2 for monitoring heart rate

Simone Benedetto et al. PLoS One. 2018.

Abstract

Fitness trackers are devices or applications for monitoring and tracking fitness-related metrics such as distance walked or run, calorie consumption, quality of sleep and heart rate. Since accurate heart rate monitoring is essential in fitness training, the objective of this study was to assess the accuracy and precision of the Fitbit Charge 2 for measuring heart rate with respect to a gold standard electrocardiograph. Fifteen healthy participants were asked to ride a stationary bike for 10 minutes and their heart rate was simultaneously recorded from each device. Results showed that the Fitbit Charge 2 underestimates the heart rate. Although the mean bias in measuring heart rate was a modest -5.9 bpm (95% CI: -6.1 to -5.6 bpm), the limits of agreement, which indicate the precision of individual measurements, between the Fitbit Charge 2 and criterion measure were wide (+16.8 to -28.5 bpm) indicating that an individual heart rate measure could plausibly be underestimated by almost 30 bpm.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors declare that the funding organization (TSW XP Lab) only provided financial support in the form of authors’ salaries [SB, CC, EB] and/or research materials, and did not play a role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the “Author Contribution” section. The authors also confirm that this commercial affiliation does not alter their adherence to all PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Ordered HR data (Fitbit Charge 2 vs. ECG).

Data have been ordered according to the frequencies collected by the criterion measure (ECG). (n = 9000).

Fig 2
Fig 2. HR data (Fitbit Charge 2 vs. ECG).

Bland-Altman Plot indicating mean difference in HR detection between the Charge 2 and ECG criterion measure. Mean bias and Limits of Agreement (95% LoA) are shown.

Fig 3
Fig 3. HR data with trend (Fitbit Charge 2 vs. ECG).

Bland-Altman Plot modeling a trend over continuous heart rate indicating mean difference in HR detection between the Charge 2 and ECG criterion measure. Mean bias and Limits of Agreement (95% LoA) are shown.

Fig 4
Fig 4. Representative time-series data of 5 participants (A, B, C, D, E).

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Grants and funding

This work was supported by TSW XP Lab, which only provided financial support in the form of authors’ salaries [SB, CC, EB] and/or research materials. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the “Author Contributions” section.