LE3 .A278 2016

2016

Fowles, Jonathon

Acadia University

Bachelor of Kinesiology

Honours

Kinesiology

Kinesiology

Public health and health advances have led to significant increases in life expectancy throughout the last century. Societal changes in activities of daily living have significantly reduced the need to be physically active. The combination of increased longevity and diminishing levels of physical activity has led to a chronic disease epidemic that is crippling our health care system. Exercise has been suggested as an effective form of preventative medicine as a means of reducing the chronic disease epidemic. However, many individuals fail to meet Canadian guidelines of physical activity due to a combination of societal, environmental and individual barriers. Physical activity monitoring devices have been shown to be an effective way to increase confidence and knowledge surrounding physical activity in order to overcome many of hese barriers. Monitoring devices vary in function, cost, practically and in their abilities to measure both step counts and exercise intensity. The purpose of this study was to determine the step and intensity related validity of several physical activity monitoring devices. Results indicated that the PiezoRx® was the most accurate for steps count and had the highest correlations to criterion measures of metabolic intensity compared to several other monitoring devices including the FitBit®, SensaWear® and the research grade Actical® accelerometer. The fact that the PiezoRx® was also the lowest cost device tested may lead to this device being used as a practical objective monitoring device in the population and in other avenues such as health care.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:1431