Work

A Consumer Cohort Yields Accurate Step Estimates in Young and Middle Aged Adults

Year: 2026

Type: preprint

Abstract: Widespread adoption of consumer wearables offers large-scale, continuous physical activity data, but concerns around non-representative device adoption and device differences have precluded their use in population health surveillance. We examined trends in mean daily steps from >200,000 Fitbit participants in Japan (2015-2023), and >300,000 in the United Kingdom (2021-2023) and >7 million in 28 countries globally (2015-2022) to national estimates. Fitbit step estimates showed close agreement with national estimates in younger and middle-aged adults in Japan (20-50 years: Mean Percentage Difference = -0.3%), and middle-aged adults in England (50-69 years: MPD = 0.1-2.0%), though were higher than national estimates in older adults in both countries (Japan 70+ years: MPD = 15.9%, England 80+ years: MPD = 20.1%). Changes in Fitbit steps showed a moderate-to-strong linear relationship with changes in the prevalence of people who report meeting physical activity guidelines (2010-2022) across 28 countries with complete demographic coverage (R 2 = 0.47-0.50). Consumer wearable data provide indications of long-term population health trends and could complement national physical activity surveillance in young and middle-aged adults in countries with sufficient demographic coverage, which tend to be in the Global North.

Source: Research Square

DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-10891779/v1