The Use of Wearable Technologies in the Assessment of Physical Activity in Preschool- and School-Age Youth: Systematic Review

Abstract

In recent years, physical activity assessment has increasingly relied on wearable monitors to provide measures for surveillance, intervention, and epidemiological research. This present systematic review aimed to examine the current research about the utilization of wearable technology in the evaluation in physical activities of preschool- and school-age children. A database search (Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus) for original research articles was performed. A total of twenty-one articles met the inclusion criteria, and the Cochrane risk of bias tool was used. Wearable technology can actually be a very important instrument/tool to detect the movements and monitor the physical activity of children and adolescents. The results revealed that there are a few studies on the influence of these technologies on physical activity in schools, and most of them are descriptive. In line with previous research, the wearable devices can be used as a motivational tool to improve PA behaviors and in the evaluation of PA interventions. However, the different reliability levels of the different devices used in the studies can compromise the analysis and understanding of the results.

Field-Based Measurement of Cardiorespiratory Fitness for Children and the Youth in Low and Middle Income Settings

“…Low-to middle-income countries can utilize these low-cost and simple sub-maximal exercise tests while also maximizing the use of readily available physical activity and physical fitness questionnaires. Wearable and smartphone technology are very popular in this age group and its rapid development also helps drive down its cost [39,40]. More studies and urgent collaboration is needed among all countries to validate, simplify, standardize and implement these fitness tests, whether as individual tools or as a test battery, so that physical inactivity can indeed be significantly decreased among children and the youth by 2030 [38].…”

“…A 2023 meta-analysis showed that varied wearable devices are used to measure PA for children [39]. The pedometers revealed low accuracy at slower speeds and when these were attached to certain clothing items (e.g.…”

“…Accelerometers provided more data such as the frequency, duration and intensity of PA. The ActiGraph, Actical and ActiTrainer accelerometers had the best measurement properties to assess common movement-related outcomes for school-based activities while, among the pedometers, the Yamax Digi-Walker (SW-200, SW-700 and 701) provided the best measurement for movement-related outcomes [39].…”

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“…This is despite recent contributions in the literature that provide theoretical and practical examples as to how such devices can be harnessed to improve the teaching and learning process in P.E. lessons [6] . For instance, the increase of accessible, transportable digital technologies via wearable applications (e.g., tablets, iPad, Garmin, FitBit) have made them broadly used in science and technology-based lessons.…”

The ChAMP App: A Scalable mHealth Technology for Detecting Digital Phenotypes of Early Childhood Mental Health

“…Successful systems [2], [3] for capturing child physiology and behavior typically leverage mood induction tasks, or behavioral paradigms that "press" for a specific emotional or behavioral response [4]. A child's response is quantified via a physiological metric (i.e., galvanic skin response, heart rate) measured using specialized equipment (e.g., [5], [6]) and/or via behavioral coding (i.e., tracking facial expressions/body movements in task videos [3], [7]) which requires specialized computer programs (e.g., [8]) and trained personnel [4], [9]. In some cases, quantifiable features responsive to the behavioral paradigms and related to the child's emotional and behavioral health [10] are then used to supplement clinical assessment [4], [11], [12].…”