The Accuracy of Commercially Available Fitness Trackers in Patients after Stroke

Background: Fitness trackers could represent an easy-to-use and cheap tool for continuous tracking of physical activity of stroke survivors during the period of their recovery at home. The aim of the study was to examine the accuracy of the Fitbit activity tracker in locomotor activity monitoring of stroke survivors with respect to gait disorders, walking speed, walking aid, and placement of the tracker on body. Methods: Twenty-four ambulatory stroke survivors (15 men and 9 women) with locomotion/gait disorder were involved in the study. Patients underwent two walking tests with the Fitbit Alta HR trackers attached on 5 different places on body. The accuracy of the trackers has been analyzed on 3 groups of patients—those walking without any walking aid, those using a single-point stick and those using a rolling walker. Results: For no-aid patients, the most accurate place was the waist. Patients with a single-point stick revealed the smallest deviations for a tracker attached to a healthy lower limb, and patients with a rolling walker revealed the smallest deviations for a tracker attached on the paretic lower limb. Conclusions: An accuracy comparable with the healthy population can be reached for all of the three groups of patients, while fulfilling the conditions for minimum speed of 2 km/h and optimal placement of the trackers with respect to a walking aid and aspect to impairment.