The effectiveness of wearable activity trackers for increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary time in older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis

• Published in: DIGITAL HEALTH 2023-01, Vol.9, p.20552076231176705-20552076231176705
• Main Authors: Wu, Shuang, Li, Guangkai, Du, Litao, Chen, Si, Zhang, Xianliang, He, Qiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Exercise; Review
• ISSN: 2055-2076; 2055-2076
• DOI: 10.1177/20552076231176705

Background Traditional interventions such as education and counseling are successful in increasing physical activity (PA) participation, but are usually labor and resource intensive. Wearable activity trackers can objectively record PA and provide feedback to help users to achieve activity goals and are an increasingly popular tool among adults used to facilitate self-monitoring of PA. However, no reviews systematically explored the roles of wearable activity trackers in older populations. Methods We searched PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Scopus from inception to September 10, 2022. Randomized controlled trials were included. Two reviewers independently conducted study selection, data extraction, risk of bias, and certainty of evidence assessment. A random-effects model was used to evaluate the effect size. Results A total of 45 studies with 7144 participants were included. A wearable activity tracker was effective in increasing daily steps (standard mean differences (SMD) = 0.59, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.44, 0.75)), weekly moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) (SMD = 0.54, 95% CI (0.36, 0.72)), and total daily PA (SMD = 0.21, 95% CI (0.01, 0.40)) and reducing sedentary time (SMD = −0.10, 95% CI (−0.19, −0.01)). Subgroup analysis showed that the effectiveness of wearable activity trackers for daily steps was not influenced by participants and intervention features. However, wearable activity trackers seemed more effective in promoting MVPA of participant's age