Validity of three accelerometers during treadmill walking and motor vehicle travel

Objective To determine the relative accuracy during treadmill walking and motor vehicle travel of the ActivPAL, PALlite and Digi-Walker accelerometers. Methods Forty healthy volunteers wearing all accelerometers undertook either five treadmill walks (n=20) at speeds ranging between 0.6 and 1.4 m/s or a 15 min motor vehicle journey (n=20). Step counts recorded by each accelerometer were compared with the actual step count determined by video analysis (treadmill walking) or with an actual step count of zero (motor vehicle). Mean percentage measurement error was calculated and compared between devices by one-way ANOVA and Student t test. Results For treadmill walking, the measurement error was lowest for the ActivPAL, with no significant differences between the ActivPAL and the PALlite monitors. The measurement error was significantly higher for the Digi-Walker at speeds of <= 1 m/s. During vehicle travel erroneous steps were recorded by the PALlite (254 steps) and Digi-Walker (25 steps), but not the ActivPAL monitor (0 steps). Conclusions The ActivPAL accelerometer accurately measures step count over a range of walking speeds and, unlike the other accelerometers tested, is not falsely triggered by motor vehicle travel.