Validity of activity wristbands for estimating daily physical activity in primary schoolchildren under free-living conditions: School-Fit study

INTRODUCTION: The use of activity wristbands to monitor and promote schoolchildren's physical activity (PA) is increasingly widespread. However, their validity has not been sufficiently studied, especially among primary schoolchildren. Consequently, the main purpose was to examine the validity of the daily steps and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) scores estimated by the activity wristbands Fitbit Ace 2, Garmin Vivofit Jr 2, and the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 in primary schoolchildren under free-living conditions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An initial sample of 67 schoolchildren (final sample = 62; 50% females), aged 9–12 years old (mean = 10.4 ± 1.0 years), participated in the present study. Each participant wore three activity wristbands (Fitbit Ace 2, Garmin Vivofit Jr 2, and Xiaomi Mi Band 5) on his/her non-dominant wrist and a research-grade accelerometer (ActiGraph wGT3X-BT) on his/her hip as the reference standard (number of steps and time in MVPA) during the waking time of one day. RESULTS: Results showed that the validity of the daily step scores estimated by the Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 and Xiaomi Mi Band 5 were good and acceptable (e.g., MAPE = 9.6/11.3%, and lower 95% IC of ICC = 0.87/0.73), respectively, as well as correctly classified schoolchildren as meeting or not meeting the daily 10,000/12,000-step-based recommendations, obtaining excellent/good and good/acceptable results (e.g., Garmin Vivofit Jr 2, k = 0.75/0.62; Xiaomi Mi Band 5, k = 0.73/0.53), respectively. However, the Fitbit Ace 2 did not show an acceptable validity (e.g., daily steps: MAPE = 21.1%, and lower 95% IC of ICC = 0.00; step-based recommendations: k = 0.48/0.36). None of the three activity wristbands showed an adequate validity for estimating daily MVPA (e.g., MAPE = 36.6–90.3%, and lower 95% IC of ICC = 0.00–0.41) and the validity for the MVPA-based recommendation tended to be considerably lower (e.g., k = −0.03–0.54). CONCLUSIONS: The activity wristband Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 obtained the best validity for monitoring primary schoolchildren's daily steps, offering a feasible alternative to the research-grade accelerometers. Furthermore, this activity wristband could be used during PA promotion programs to provide accurate feedback to primary schoolchildren to ensure their accomplishment with the PA recommendations.