The Use of Physical Activity Trackers in Portuguese Adolescents and
Adults
Vítor P. Lopes
1,2
and Carla Sá
2
1
Departamento de Ciências do Desporto, Escola Superior de Educação, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Portugal
2
Research Centre in Sport, Health and Human Development (CIDESD), Portugal
1 OBJECTIVES
The pandemic of physical inactivity is associated with
a range of chronic diseases and early deaths (Ding et
al., 2016). Estimates from 2012 indicated that not
meeting physical activity recommendations is
responsible for more than 5 million deaths globally
each year (Lee et al., 2012). Nowadays, sedentary
behaviours are highly prevalent, and data from adults
in high-income countries suggest the majority of time
awake is spent being sedentary (Matthews et al.,
2008).
Physical activity can be promoted in different
ways, including delivery of advice, provision of
written materials, referral to an exercise programme,
etc. Wearable monitors (physical activity trackers)
that provide feedback to users have also been used in
longitudinal interventions to motivate research
participants and to assess their compliance with
program goals (David, 2012). Physical activity
trackers, as pedometers, accelerometers, smartphone
applications and heart rate monitors, could be an
important complement that enable people to modified
their sedentary behaviour and to monitor their
physical activity and exercise (Wen et al., 2017).
Despite the potential and the wide range of
wearables available, little is known about the interest,
usage, preferences (Alley et al., 2016), even the
efficacy for using wearables in physical activity
levels.
This study aimed to investigate the use of physical
activity trackers in Portugal, in particular how often
people use it and how they use it to monitor
exercise/physical activity.
2 METHODS
2.1 Participants
Participants were N = 1498, of both sexes (N = 841
females) with ages between 14 and 85 years.
Inclusion criteria were being 14 years old or more
and residing in Portugal. Participants were recruited
from schools, universities, clubs, work sites, and
communities’ settings. Participants residing in
different regions of Portugal mainland (North,
Centre, Lisbon, Alentejo and Algarve), Madeira
islands, and Azores islands.
Questionnaire was distributed and answered in
paper format and online. In both cases, participants
gave their informed consent. The participants that
answered online were invited by email, explaining the
objectives of the study and including a link to the
online questionnaire. In order to select a large sample
we requested that the email be forwarded to
acquaintances and friends.
Participants were categorized by age
into
adolescents (ages 14-18 years), young adults (ages 19-
40 years), middle-aged adults (ages 41-65 years), and
older adults (aged older than 65 years). Besides, sex
and age, sociodemographic factors included education
level (no tertiary education, tertiary education less than
master level, and master and doctoral level), and
occupation. The occupation of the participants was
defined according to the Occupation Portuguese
Classification nomenclature (Instituto Nacional de
Estatística, 2010), and was subsequently classified into
3 levels: white collar (that includes the classes 0-4),
blue collar (that include the classes 5-9) and without
job (students and retired subjects) (Table 1).
2.2 Interest, Use and Preferences for
Activity Trackers
Interest, use and preferences for activity trackers were
measured troughs 11 multiple-choice questions.
First, participants were asked if they do, or they
did in the past, or if they not do exercise regularly.
The ones that answers they or they did exercise
regularly were asked how many times in a week.
Tracker use was assessed in the participants that do or
did exercise regularly by asking if they had ever used
wearable devices (yes/no). Participants who use