The evaluation of a consumer fitness tracker for monitoring physical activity in people living with multiple sclerosis

Wearable fitness trackers have become increasingly popular within the past few years and could provide a means to improve physical activity (PA) levels for individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS).
A consumer-grade PA tracker was tested in 45 individuals with MS having moderate mobility impairment. The step count and time in PA aligned with reference measures for scripted tasks and exhibited a moderate to strong correlation with reference measures during free-living activity, but varied across tracker-derived PA metrics, data aggregation levels and disease severity.
Although the tracker matched closely to reference standards, the authors advise that it only be used as a PA tracker for people with mild to moderate MS.