Wearable technology is the number one trend in exercise. While convenient to wear, our experience has been that they do not always work as advertised.
PURPOSE: To determine if different levels of body composition (BC) or body mass index (BMI) along with a person’s gender could affect the Hexoskin shirts ability to measure heart rate (HR). METHODS. 312 data points from previous research were used to determine if significant differences existed between expected and observed results for BC and BMI in regards to HR connection time and stability of HR measurement during use. Connection times > than 15s or high and low fluctuations of HR were considered a “connection issue.” BMI was divided in to normal (≤24.99), overweight (25.00-29.99) and obese (≥30.99) categories. BC was divided in to 4 quartiles based on BC average (27.14; SD±6.90). Q1 (≤20.23), Q2 (20.24-27.13), Q3 (27.14-34.03), Q4 (≥34.05). The percent of data points that had connection issues for all 3 BMI and 4 BC categories were evaluated using the Chi-squared test with an expected “No Issue” value of 95%. All categories were calculated for the data set as a whole and then as individual genders.
RESULTS: Data point analysis for overall BMI are as follows; normal = 38% (p<0.00), overweight = 29% (p<0.00), and obese = 43% (p<0.00). Overall BC connection issues; Q1 = 39% (p<0.00), Q2 = 41% (p<0.00), Q3 = 34% (p<0.00), Q4 = 25% (p<0.00). For Males, BMI connection issues were as follows; normal =48% (p<0.00), overweight = 30% (p<0.00), and obese = 42% (p<0.00). BC connection issues; Q1 = 46% (p<0.00), Q2 = 36% (p<0.00), Q3 = 36% (p<0.00), Q4 = 25% (p<0.00). For females, BMI connection issues were as follows; normal =34% (p<0.00), overweight = 28% (p<0.00), and obese (only 1 subject was in this category, no analysis was performed). BC connection issues; Q1 = 10% (p<0.47), Q2 = 47% (p<0.00), Q3 = 32% (p<0.00), Q4 = 26% (p<0.00).
CONCLUSION: Our original hypothesis was that due to anthropometric influences, HR connection issues would be present on the upper and lower ends of BC and BMI. Except for females in the Q1 BC, instabilities in HR readings were observed in larger than expected quantities across all categories for both the overall and gender specific analysis.
