Key Takeaways
Better Wear Time – At the strict 10hour/day standard, 54 % of students produced valid data with the wrist worn SQORD band versus just 22 % with the waist worn ActiGraph GT3X.
Meaningful Agreement – Daily moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) recorded by SQORD showed a moderate correlation with ActiGraph MVPA (r = 0.651, p < .01), indicating that the low cost device tracks intensity patterns reasonably well.
Persistent Activity Gap – Even among youth who met wear time criteria, mean MVPA was only 36.5 minutes/day, well below the U.S. guideline of 60 minutes.
Fitness Unrelated to MVPA – Neither device’s MVPA output was significantly linked to abdominal strength, upper body endurance, aerobic capacity, or leg power, likely because of small sample size and limited measurement days.
Program & Research Implications – Consumer grade, game-based wrist trackers may increase engagement in low-resource settings, but strategies to push weartime beyond half the week remain essential.
Study Snapshot
Forty-one 5th and 6thgrade students (81 % Hispanic; average age = 10.7 y) from a Title I school wore both monitors for seven days while baseline fitness tests were collected. Only 27 students received an ActiGraph due to device shortages, but 38 received SQORD bands, allowing direct device comparisons in the subgroup that wore both.
Discussion Highlights
Comfort & Gamification Matter
The SQORD’s waterproof, watch style design—and its immediate feedback through points and in-app avatars—likely boosted acceptability. Prior research shows youth prefer wrist devices for comfort and social aesthetics, and that preference was borne out in the stronger compliance rates here.
Moderate Validity, Major Practicality
A correlation of 0.65 is not perfect but is robust enough for school programming, after-school clubs, and low-budget research where thousands of dollars in ActiGraphs are unrealistic. For formative assessment and motivational challenges, SQORD appears “good enough.”
WearTime Remains the Achilles’ Heel
Even the betterperforming SQORD captured full criterion data from only half of participants. Incentives (a backpack raffle) and teacher reminders helped, but more creative adherence strategies—daily check-ins, peer challenges, or automatic push notifications—are still needed, especially over weekends when weartime drops.
No Fitness Correlations—Yet
The absence of links between MVPA and FITNESSGRAM metrics may reflect the study’s limited valid day sample rather than a true disconnect. Larger, longer studies that control for maturation could clarify whether SQORD-captured MVPA predicts functional fitness gains.
Why It Matters
For educators and community programs serving low income youth, cost and compliance are persistent barriers to monitoring activity. This study suggests that a ~$40 consumer tracker can approximate ActiGraph readings while doubling the odds that a child will actually wear it long enough to yield usable data. That opens the door for datadriven interventions—step count competitions, personalized PA goals, or integrating “points” into literacy and STEM curricula—without prohibitive hardware costs.
However, measurement is only the first step. The real win will come when these devices not only track movement but also trigger behavior change strategies that help more kids reach 60 minutes of MVPA every single day.
Full Article:
McAlister, K.,* Fisher, K., Wilson, K., & Marttinen, R. (2020). Correlation and wear-time compliance of the wrist-worn SQORD activity monitor compared to the Actigraph 3TGX in measuring free-living physical activity in low SES elementary youth. Californian Journal of Health Promotion, 17(2), 28-40. https://doi.org/10.32398/cjhp.v17i2.2287
This blog post was written with the assistance of AI to support clarity and accessibility. It is intended to help disseminate and discuss research findings with a broader audience. However, for the most accurate and reliable information—including conclusions and practical applications—please refer to the original peer-reviewed publication on which this blog is based. The peer-reviewed article remains the most authoritative source.