A Comparison of Sedentary Behavior as Measured by the Fitbit and ActivPAL in College Students

Chelsea Carpenter, Chih-Hsiang Yang and Delia West
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Chelsea Carpenter: Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA
Chih-Hsiang Yang: Department of Exercise Science, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
Delia West: Department of Exercise Science, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 8, 1-9

Abstract: Previous studies have examined the ability of the Fitbit to measure physical activity compared to research-grade accelerometers. However, few have examined whether Fitbits accurately measure sedentary behavior. This study examined whether the Fitbit Charge 3 adequately quantifies sedentary behavior compared to the gold standard in objectively measured sedentary behavior assessment, the activPAL. Eleven adults wore a Fitbit Charge 3 and activPAL device for 14 days and self-reported their sedentary behavior each week. ActivPAL epoch data were summed into minute-by-minute data and processed with two cutpoints ( activPAL_Half and activPAL_Full ) to compare to Fitbit data. Paired t-tests were used to examine differences between the two devices for sedentary behavior variables. Intraclass correlations were used to examine device agreement. There was no significant difference in sedentary time between activPAL_Half and Fitbit data, but activPAL_Full estimated significantly lower sedentary time than Fitbit. Intraclass correlations showed high agreement. We suggest that Fitbit could replace activPAL when measuring total sedentary time.

Keywords: sedentary behavior; measurement; Fitbit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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