Pedometers: Mayo Foundation For Medical Education And Research

In the past no one knew about tracking their diet, setting goals, any online programs or apps. Now, there are thousands of apps and online programs to choose from to begin your health journey; in my opinion, that could be scary. You have your apps that track everything from exercising, what you eat, how much you slept and much more. If you are a runner or a cyclist, there is an app just for your specific physical activity. Fitbit is the only app that comes to my mind that I have seen at my job. They have watches that you can wear to track your progress, or you can use the online portion or both. I want to start small; so, using my phone would be the best option. There are free apps that I would try to see if tracking my progress helps.

Pedometers assist individuals with self-monitoring by providing objective and quantifiable data on steps, distance and caloric expenditure. Individuals are able to see a measure of physical activity within the day and adjust their behaviour to meet a certain goal. Many interventions have been conducted using pedometers as a tool to increase participants physical activity over a period of time. A systematic review undertaken by Bravata et al., (2007) examined the use of pedometers to increase physical activity in twenty-six studies with a total of 2767 participants. Bravata et al., (2007) found pedometers significantly increased levels of physical activity by more than 25% from the baseline. A significant predictor of whether pedometers had an impact on physical activity was whether participants had a step goal (e.g. 10000 steps) (Bravata, et al., 2007). It was found a step goal further increased the level of physical activity, which relates to the self-regulation model. The studies have shown that individual who recorded data from the pedometer such as daily steps, were more successful than those who did not keep records (Bravata, et al., 2007; Tudor-Locke & Lutes, 2009). This indicates the importance of feedback on the creation of challenges and goal

Insufficient physical activity is one the leading risk factors for global mortality. Physical activity not only contributes to wellbeing, it is essential for good health. Increasing physical activity levels can help prevent or manage many conditions and diseases; this includes coronary heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and obesity along with improving mental health. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), physical activity is any bodily movement by muscles that requires energy expenditure.

I used a digital stopwatch to measure the length of my exercise sessions. I started the timer before beginning my workout, and stopped it as soon as I had finished. I recorded the session lengths in a table (See Appendix – Table 1), so I could keep track of my daily and weekly goals. For a few of the workouts, I used a treadmill and weights that I own, in order to avoid repetition and boredom.

I thought about what would be a good improvement project that would allow me to use the PDSA cycle and improve my life. Therefore, after much thought it would be good to increase my exercise activity than what I currently do. I have a heart condition that stopped me from doing any exercise. It took a little over two years, but with medication and blood work, the physicians now say it would be fine to add some exercise to my routine, but I am only allowed to do walking. On an average day, I manage around 2,000 steps, so my plan is to increase my steps to 10,000 a day. I will have mini-goals to reach my final goal of 10,000 steps a day. I can easily monitor my habit with my walking app on my phone. In addition, I will be tracking it in Excel

The article that I choose is "Walking for fitness? Make it count with a pedometer" by Mayo clinic staff thus article can be found on www.mayoclinic.com. This article shows how using a pedometer can provide motivation and long/short term goals by ,creating customized feedback about your activity level, and show you your progress and how far you have come in reaching your goals. The Mayo Clinic staff explain how to get the best result and how to properly use the pedometer to help achieve and set higher and higher goals. For example in the article the staff describe easy steps to getting the best results and use out of your pedometer.

The first question that I am going to ask our small group is do you think that pedometers are an effective technology to motivate people to engage in walking? In addition the class text defines a pedometer: “as a small electronic device worn on the waistband that counts the wearer’s steps. In addition for health and fitness educators, pedometers are a convenient, low cost, user-friendly technology that offers immediate feedback on accumulated activity levels. Heralded as motivational tools that promote exercise adherence, pedometers have been incorporated into health promotion programs nationwide. Mainstream news articles also encourage Americans to walk for health and to use pedometer’s to measure progress toward step specified goals.

The Garmin Vivofit 3 keeps things simple and is super-efficient to use, especially when it comes to the battery life. According to Garmin, the battery life is up to a year before you need to replace it. The device is affordable compared to other wearables such as the Fitbit Alta. The design may not be as pretty and sleek but can track your steps, calories, distance, monitor your sleep and intensity minutes on the backlit display.

I am fortunate to have had a pedometer given to me after attending a recent health fair. However, I did not give it thought much since I did not appreciate the value that such a small object could have. It was not until this assignment and reading the article from CNN.com called “Pedometers: Stepping up your health,” that I realized just how useful it could be not just for a grade but for my health.

Today, health is a word that we hear everyday in social media, on television and in magazines. Health is more than just being physically active; it ranges from disease control all the way to health promotion. As technology has advanced over the past decayed, we have been able to monitor health behaviors on a more precise level. “Self-monitoring or self-tracking is where individuals use intelligent tools like wearable sensors and mobile apps to collect, process and display a wealth of personal data to help them monitor and manage all aspects of their personal health” (Catharine Paddock, 2013). I think monitoring our health behaviors makes us more vigilant of our daily activities. Seeing how far we walk, tracking sleep patterns, and journaling

Given my experience, trackers are unreliable in guiding proper fitness since they fail to provide individuals with a complete, accurate picture of their daily activity habits. The data shown in my step-count table does not necessarily provide a useful measurement of daily activity; it merely scratches the surface and fails to take into account the other important aspects of fitness and well-being. However, when relating this method of physical activity tracking to others, I believe that the elderly population could benefit from using fitness trackers due to their naturally limited physical activity routines. From what I’ve experienced, there are a number of benefits available to seniors through the use of wearable devices. For example, the

If you are the type of person that likes to do many activities, the Garmin Vivoactive is the best fitness tracker for you. In fact, no other fitness band can compare if you are a really active person.

An interesting points I found while reading this article was that “at least in studies, pedometer users walk more that 2,000 additional steps each day than nonuser”. This is true, I started using a pedometer at work while participating on the GCC 100 Day Challenge and during those 100 days, my lowest day was around 8,000 steps. By using a pedometer and by being able to count your steps everyday, it gives you a sense on accountability an it motivates you to mover more often throughout the day. During the 100 days of the challenge my step count was lower during the weekend (Saturday and Sunday), possible because due to my busy work week, I was trying to catch up on my sleep and just hang around my family.

The Fitbit Charge HR is absolutely appropriate for those who are looking for a fitness tracker of all-purpose. This device is able to measure your steps, calories, sleep as well as your heart rate all day and all night. It is designed with comfortable strap and another benefit of it is that its small OLED display will show you who's calling you. If you are looking for an all-purpose activity tracker to get on an easy price the Fitbit Charge HR offers the best combination of features and price for you as it costs only

In this article published by Scientific American, the author is in agreement with us that the benefits of fitness trackers far outweigh their accuracy deficiencies.