Accelerometry and Wearable Devices in Sports Medicine and Health Promotion.

Since more than two decades, accelerometers are used in sports medicine and health promotion to assess physical activity. The basis for this is the measurement of accelerations caused by physical movement. Accelerometers were originally developed for research purposes, but are also installed into smartphones, thus enabling a broad use in research and practice. Accelerometers can assess various dimensions of physical activity (e.g., duration, frequency, intensity) and monitor physical activity goals. In research practice, parameters like wearing time, body position, and cut-off values must be considered to get meaningful data. In addition to pre-processed physical activity data, many devices give access to raw acceleration data, which improves comparability between different types of devices. Consumer-graded wearable devices and smartphone apps for physical activity assessment and monitoring offer a great opportunity for large scale interventions and long-term behavior change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]