Polar Vantage and Oura physical activity and sleep trackers: A validation and comparison study

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Abstract

Background

Consumer-based activity trackers are increasingly used in research as they have potential to increase activity participation and can be used for estimating physical activity. However, the accuracy of newer consumer-based devices is mostly unknown, and validation studies are needed.

Objective

The objective of this study was to test the accuracy of the Polar Vantage watch and Oura ring activity trackers for measuring physical activity, total energy expenditure, resting heart rate, and sleep duration, in free-living adults.

Methods

Twenty-one participants wore two consumer-based activity trackers (Polar, Oura), an ActiGraph accelerometer, an Actiheart accelerometer and heart rate monitor, and completed a sleep diary for up to seven days. We assessed Polar and Oura validity and comparability for physical activity, total energy expenditure, resting heart rate (Oura), and sleep duration. We analysed repeated measures correlation, Bland-Altman plots, and mean absolute percentage error.

Results

Polar and Oura were both strongly correlated (p<0.001) with ActiGraph for steps (Polar r 0.75, 95% CI 0.54-0.92. Oura r 0.77, 95% CI 0.62-0.87), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (Polar r 0.76, 95% CI 0.62-0.88. Oura r 0.70, 95% CI 0.49-0.82), and total energy expenditure (Polar r 0.69, 95% CI 0.48-0.88. Oura r 0.70, 95% CI 0.51-0.83) and strongly or very strongly correlated (p<0.001) with the sleep diary for sleep duration (Polar r 0.74, 95% CI 0.56-0.88. Oura r 0.82, 95% CI 0.68-0.91). Oura had a very strong correlation (p<0.001) with Actiheart for resting heart rate ( r 0.9, 95% CI 0.85-0.96). However, all confidence interval ranges were wide and mean absolute percentage error was high for all variables, except Oura sleep duration (10%) and resting heart rate (3%) where Oura under-reported on average one beat per minute.

Conclusions

Oura can potentially be used as an alternative to Actiheart to measure resting heart rate. For sleep duration, Polar and Oura can potentially be used as a replacement for a manual sleep diary, depending on acceptable error. Neither Polar nor Oura can replace ActiGraph for measuring steps, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, and total energy expenditure, but may be used as an additional source of physical activity in some settings.