Abstract presented at the Annual Meeting of the ACSM, 2006 Denver, CO. USA

Validation of SenseWear® armband to Assess Energy Expenditure in Children Ranging in Body Size

Joseph L. Andreacci¹, Curt B. Dixon², Timothy R. McConnell, FACSM¹

Purpose. To examine the validity of the SenseWear® Pro II armband to assess energy expenditure during treadmill exercise in children.

Methods. Thirty-four healthy children (age = 8.6 ± 1.3 yrs) participated in this investigation. Thirteen subjects (7 girls, 6 boys; age = 8.5 ± 1.4 yrs; height = 137.7 ± 6.1 cm; weight = 41.4 ± 10.9 kg) were used for the development and training of the algorithms and twenty-one subjects (10 girls, 11 boys; age = 8.7 ± 1.4 yrs; height = 133.1 ± 10.2 cm; weight = 33.3 ± 9.6 kg) were used for the testing (TEST) of the algorithms. All participants preformed three 8-minute sub-maximal exercise bouts on a motorized treadmill (1.7 mph, 0% grade; 2.5mph, 0% grade; and 3.4mph, 0% grade) each separated by a 5-min seated rest period. Heat flux was measured with a SenseWear® Pro II Armband (Body Media) placed on the lateral head of the triceps. Data was collected at minute intervals and converted to energy expenditure using algorithms developed by the manufacturer. Indirect calorimetry was used as the criterion measure for energy expenditure (kcal/min) based on oxygen consumption and caloric equivalents corrected for the respiratory quotient.

Results. When the generalized proprietary algorithm to be released in BodyMedia's InnerView Research and Clinical Software (December 2005) was applied to the data, the estimates of the SenseWear® Pro II Armband were not significantly different from indirect calorimetry measurements: overall (SenseWear = 31.3 ± 6.9 vs. VO2 = 31.5 ± 11.2 kcal); 1.7 mph (SenseWear = 8.2 ± 1.7 vs. VO2 = 8.9 ± 3.4 kcal/min); 2.4 mph (SenseWear = 9.9 ± 2.1 vs. VO2 = 9.9 ± 3.6 kcal/min); 3.4 mph (SenseWear =13.3 ± 3.3 vs. VO2 = 12.8 ± 4.4 kcal/min). The mean absolute percentage session error of the energy expenditure for the set of the TEST subjects was 13.1% for 1.7 mph, 10.4% for 2.5 mph, and 9.6% for 3.4 mph.

Conclusion. The results demonstrate that the SenseWear® Pro II Armband accurately estimates energy expenditure during intermittent sub-maximal treadmill exercise in children varying in age and body size. Validation of energy expenditure during other modes of activity in children should be explored.

Publication: Abstract presented at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, 2006, Denver, CO. USA