Validity of Caloric Expenditure Measured from a Wheelchair User Smartwatch.

The objective of this study was to investigate the validity of measured caloric expenditure from a fitness smartwatch designed to measured values in wheelchair users against criterion values from a portable metabolic system. 15 wheelchair users and 15 able-bodied participants completed multiple tasks; wheelchair treadmill routine at 30, 45, and 60 strokes per minute, arm cycle ergometry at 45, 60, and 80 revolutions per minute, and arm cycle ergometry VO2Peak test. There were no interactions for device or task and group (wheelchair users vs. able bodied, p=0.375-0.944) therefore results were pooled across groups for all measures. The smartwatch exhibited poor to moderate caloric expenditure association during wheelchair treadmill routine (ICC<0.39) and arm cycle ergometry (ICC<0.541). Smartwatch underestimated caloric expenditure during the wheelchair treadmill task (Mean differences (Limits of Agreement)) (-2.11 (-8.19-3.96), -3.68 (-12.64-5.28), and -4.51 (-15.05-6.02)) and overestimated during the arm cycle ergometry task (0.89 (-3.10-4.88), 3.40 (-0.31-7.12), and 2.81 (-1.71-7.32)). The smartwatch is currently not well suited to calculate caloric expenditure when performing exercise tasks on a wheelchair treadmill and arm cycle ergometry.

Changes in school-day step counts during a physical activity for Lent intervention: a cluster randomized crossover trial of the Savior's Sandals.

BACKGROUND: Participation in regular physical activity (PA) has many health benefits for school-aged children. However, only about 20% of children worldwide meet recommendations for being sufficiently active. Children spend many hours per day at school and schools have a mandate for promoting PA. Private religious schools could serve as a novel source for religious-themed PA interventions. METHODS: We randomly allocated 2 clusters of 2 Catholic middle (grades 6-8) schools/cluster to a 2-week no treatment/4-week intervention crossover trial to determine the effects of a 20-day Lenten-themed PA intervention on 187 students' pedometer steps taken at school. Specifically, students independently progressed through a workbook (Savior's Sandals) that depicted and informed about 11 locations in the Holy Land where Jesus lived, visited, and/or ministered, and included Scripturally-based questions about each place for students to answer. In all, students would accumulate 110,000 steps if they completed the workbook virtual journey. General linear mixed models with restricted maximum likelihood estimation to compensate for missing data were used to compute the intervention effects on mean daily steps. RESULTS: There were significant main effects for the intervention overall and by school and grade level. Follow-up tests isolated that a single school (Meandiff = + 2156 steps/day) and grade 6 students (Meandiff = + 1678 steps/day) across all four schools experienced the greatest treatment effects. CONCLUSIONS: Religious-themed PA interventions can be effective; however, specific adjustments may be needed to optimize the intervention's effectiveness for a broader population of students. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN10273669 . Retrospectively registered 23 Oct 2018.