Summary which are the most accurate heart rate monitors for sporting activities published in scientific journals?

Last Updated on February 4, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org

According to a paper by

Selena R Pasadyn, Mohamad Soudan, Marc Gillinov, Penny Houghtaling, Dermot Phelan, Nicole Gillinov, Barbara Bittel, Milind Y Desai

which was published in

Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Therapy

on August 2019

in journal number ;9(4):

on page 379-385

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6732081/

which uses

a Quinton Standard 3-leads Q-tel RM

clinical grade ECG device

which we suppose that it is also used by cardiologists

from the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio for their clinical research.

This paper showed that for runs on a treadmill with up to 15 km/ h

the Polar H7 has an accuracy of 98 % compared to the clinical grade ECG reference device

followed by the Apple watch 3 with an accuracy of 96 % compared to the clinical grade ECG device

We suppose that the Cleveland Clinic did not publish any data for higher speeds on a treadmill due to ECG motion artifacts in activities with strong body movements.

The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio has a research grant of about 200 million USD a year, and has a research institute with many scientist working there with a lot of experience with ECG devices.

The Swiss Federal Institute of Sports in Magglingen has not a research grant of 200 million USD a year, an published a paper with the Polar H10 chest strap and a Holter ECG device for comparison, which costs around 1700 USD.

The Swiss paper showed that for activities with strong body movement, a Polar H10 chests strap is Gold Standard for HRM measurement.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31004219/

But for runs on a tread mill with speeds up to 15 km/h, the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio has chosen

a Quinton Standard 3-leads Q-tel RMS ECG device as the most accurate reference device.

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