Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: To examine the ability of a multisensor armband (SenseWear Pro 2 Armband™, Body Media, Pittsburgh, PA) to estimate daily energy expenditure (EE).

Patients and methods: Eighteen healthy women (mean age:29.4±5.8 yr and mean BMI:23.2) participated in the study. Daily EE was estimated by the Sensewear Armband and a physical activity record (PAL) during the same day. Appropriate MET factors were assigned to the different activity categories.

Results: The SenseWear Armband significantly underestimated daily EE compared with the PAL, 2552.7 vs 2915.5 kcal.d−1, (P<0.001). Correlations between the SenseWear Armband and PAL was r=0.77 (P<0.001). When compared SWA and PAL using the Bland and Altman technique we show that they had significant limits of agreement. However, the difference between the methods was not negligible for individual subjects. Compared with the PAL, the SenseWear Armband underestimated time accumulated in active behaviors (43.9 vs 85.0 min.d−1).

Conclusions: These data show that the SenseWear Armband underestimated free-living energy expenditure regarding to a PAL. Multisensor detectors provide a feasible method for evaluating the physical activities of non-athletes, and could be a common tool for epidemiological research and health promotion despite its limitations. Future studies examining energy expenditure during free-living conditions along with DLW as the criterion measure of energy expenditure will be also of great value.