The popularity of fitness trackers has grown exponentially over the past few years, with the latest devices having an ever more impressive array of features.  The workhorse of the wearable fitness market remains the humble step tracker however, which monitors how many steps we take as we go about our day.

A new study from the Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City finds that even this humble device can yield a range of valuable insights for the healthcare profession.

The research suggests that our daily step counts can be an accurate marker not only for our exercise capacity, but also help medics to determine the health status of patients more effectively than standardized six-minute exercise tests.

Steps to fitness

The researchers believe that such step data could be used by clinicians to better monitor patient progress and disease management.

“For patients, this means we can track their progress more frequently in a manner that’s less expensive and more convenient than current standardized testing,” they say.

The researchers compared the step data to the standardized ‘six-minute walk distance (6WMD)’ test used to assess a patient’s exercise capacity.  It requires the patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cardiovascular diseases to walk for six minutes and report how many meters they covered so that the clinical staff can use the data to predict health outcomes.

“Normally, the 6WMD test is done every few months or once a year. Now, we may be able to measure patients on a regular basis and know if we need to intervene if their estimated 6WMD by step count changes,” the researchers explain.

A better alternative

A group of volunteers, all of whom had a history of respiratory problems, conducted a 12-week trial during a period of high air pollution.  Wrist step trackers monitored their activity during this period, while a frequent series of questionnaires monitored any respiratory symptoms observed during the study.

The data revealed that the step data was useful in estimating the 6MWD results for that patient, and obviously could be done remotely, thus saving the patient a trip to the lab.

“Instead of having one measurement every few months, you could have weekly measurements, and have information at disease progression at more frequent intervals. This is a significant improvement and enhanced convenience for our patients,” the researchers say.