Dr. Rachel Colley has co-authored a paper with Joel Barnes, Allana LeBlanc, Michael Borghese, Charles Boyer and Dr. Mark Tremblay titled, “Validity of the SC-StepMX pedometer during treadmill walking and running“. The paper was published on the web yesterday in Applied Phyisology, Nutrition and Metabolism. Citation information is available below.
Rachel C. Colley, Joel D. Barnes, Allana G Leblanc, Michael Borghese, Charles Boyer, Mark S. Tremblay. Validity of the SC-StepMX pedometer during treadmill walking and running. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 10.1139/apnm-2012-0321. Published on the web 26 November 2012.
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the SC-StepMX pedometer for measuring step counts. A convenience sample of 40 participants wore 4 SC-StepMX pedometers, 2 Yamax DigiWalker pedometers and 2 Actical accelerometers around their waist on a treadmill at 4 speeds based on each participant’s self-paced walking speed (50%, 100%, 180% and 250%; range: 1.4–14.1 km∙h-1). The SC-StepMX demonstrated lower mean absolute percent error (-0.2%) compared to the Yamax DigiWalker (-20.5%) and the Actical (-26.1%). Mean measurement bias was lower for the SC-StepMX (0.1 ± 9.1; 95% CI = -17.8 to 18.0 steps∙min-1) when compared to both the Yamax DigiWalker (-15.9 ± 23.3; 95% CI = -61.6 to 29.7 steps∙min-1) and the Actical (-22.0 ± 36.3; 95% CI = -93.1 to 49.1 steps∙min-1). The SC-StepMX started measuring steps accurately at ~3.2 km∙h-1 while the Actical and Yamax DigiWalker exhibited accurate measurement starting at ~3.9 km∙h-1 and ~4.8 km∙h-1, respectively). This study demonstrates that the SC-StepMX pedometer is a valid tool for the measurement of step counts. The SC-StepMX accurately measures step counts at slower walking speeds when compared to two other commercially-available activity monitors. This makes the SC-StepMX useful in measuring step counts in populations that are active at lower intensities (e.g., sedentary individuals, the elderly).
