Diabete in Movimento (Diabetes in movement), Italy, issue 5, year 4, June 2005

Review : Evaluation of the Sensewear Pro Armband to assess Energy Expenditure during exercise

Prof. Pierpaolo de Feo, MD – Chiara Di Loreto, MD – Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Internal Medicine, Endocrine and Metabolic Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Abstract

It has been widely demonstrated by epidemiological and interventional studies that a correct lifestyle, including an increase of physical activity and dieting, is extremely effective in preventing and treating Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Metabolic Syndrome.

In the Diabetes Prevention Research Group study it is recommended, as a goal, reaching 150 minutes/week of physical activity and this objective is reached in 74% of the patients, within 6 months. In this trial and in the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study as well as in other studies, the main way to collect information about physical activity and relative energy expenditure is the diary-questionnaire, normally completed by the patient him/her self. In the interventional trials that include an increase of physical activity and in common clinical routine is more and more important to have available a device able to estimate Energy Expenditure during normal life activities that can aid in personalizing the physical activity program based on the characteristics, needs and habits of the subject, with the final objective to decrease body weight. It is available now on the market a portable sensor, the Senswear Pro Armband able to calculate Total Daily Expenditure and to extrapolate from it the Active Energy Expenditure. It is an innovative device, non-invasive, to be worn on the right arm triceps and that acquires several body physiological parameters (heat dissipation-flux, two axes acceleration-movement, galvanic skin response, skin and external temperature). The instrument takes into consideration gender, age, height and weight of the subject and uses proprietary algorithms developed by the manufacturer to calculate Energy Expenditure (EE).

A recently published study by Jakicic et al on the journal “Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise” (Med Sci Sports Exerc. 36:897-904, 2004) demonstrated the accuracy of the SenseWear Pro Armband. Forty subjects (age = 23.2 ± 3.8 yr; body mass index = 23.8 ± 3.1 kg•m2) performed four exercises (walking, cycling, stepping, arm ergometry) with each exercise lasting 20–30 min and workload increasing at 10-min intervals. Subjects wore the SenseWear Pro Armband™ on the right arm, and EE was estimated using proprietary equations developed by the manufacturer

Publication : Diabete in Movimento (Diabetes in movement), Italy, issue 5, year 4, June 2005