Digital health technologies (DHTs) can collect gait and physical activity in adults, but limited studies have validated these in children. This study compared gait and physical activity metrics collected using DHTs to those collected by reference comparators during in-clinic sessions, to collect a normative accelerometry dataset, and to evaluate participants’ comfort and their compliance in wearing the DHTs at-home.
The MAGIC (Monitoring Activity and Gait in Children) study was an analytical validation study which enrolled 40, generally healthy participants aged 3–17 years. Gait and physical activity were collected using DHTs in a clinical setting and continuously at-home.
Overall good to excellent agreement was observed between gait metrics extracted with a gait algorithm from a lumbar-worn DHT compared to ground truth reference systems. Majority of participants either “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that wrist and lumbar DHTs were comfortable to wear at home, respectively, with 86% (wrist-worn DHT) and 68% (lumbar-worn DHT) wear-time compliance. Significant differences across age groups were observed in multiple gait and activity metrics obtained at home.
Our findings suggest that gait and physical activity data can be collected from DHTs in pediatric populations with high reliability and wear compliance, in-clinic and in home environments.