Characterization of wrist-wearable activity measurement using whole body calorimetry in semi-free living conditions

Physical activity (PA) is a significant factor in a number of health conditions and monitoring PA can play a significant role in the treatment of, or research into, these conditions. For longitudinal monitoring of PA, unobtrusive devices are often used and there is a need for the development of energy expenditure (EE) estimation techniques from single-device systems. This paper presents an experiment designed to characterize the relationship between a previously described technique, the activity score (AS) and EE obtained from whole-room indirect calorimetry. The study used 8 participants over a 24-hr period with interspersed exercise periods to observe physical movement with wearable devices and EE in 5 minute epochs. Results show that AS and EE are correlated with a Spearman´s rank correlation coefficient of 0.775 with p <; 0.001.