Kj. Coleman et al., RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN TRITRAC-R3D VECTORS, HEART-RATE, AND SELF-REPORT IN OBESE CHILDREN, Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 29(11), 1997, pp. 1535-1542
The TriTrac (Professional Products, Inc., Madison, WI) triaxial accele
rometer and diary self report were compared with adjusted heart rates
to evaluate 3 d of leisure-time activity in 35 8- to 12-yr-old obese c
hildren. Adjusted heart rates were calculated by subtracting preexerci
se resting heart rates from heart rates measured in the field. TriTrac
and self-reported data were converted to multiples of resting metabol
ic rare (METs). Correlations between accelerometer METs and adjusted h
eart rates (r = 0.71) were significantly higher (P < 0.001) than corre
lations between adjusted heart rates and self-reported METs (r = 0.36)
or accelerometer and self-reported METs (r = 0.38). Self-reported MET
s had higher mean standard errors in estimating heart rates (13.93 +/-
6.15 beats.min(-1)) than did accelerometer METs (10.94 +/- 5.62 beats
.min(-1); P < 0.001), were significantly greater than accelerometer ME
Ts (2.50 +/- 1.48 vs 1.80 +/- 1.48; P < 0.05) and systematically overe
stimated accelerometer METs. The anteroposterior vector accounted for
36%, and the vector magnitude score accounted for 34% of the variance
in unadjusted heart rates. The mediolateral vector and vector magnitud
e score accounted for 69% of the variance in self-reported METs. The v
ertical vector did not account for variance in either unadjusted heart
rates or self-reported METs. It was concluded that the TriTrac yielde
d a better estimate of activity in obese children than self report. In
addition, the vector magnitude composite score of the TriTrac account
ed for significantly more variance in both self-reported activity and
unadjusted heart rates as compared with the vertical directional vecto
r of the TriTrac.