Bodies in motion: Monitoring daily activity and exercise with motion sensors in people with chronic pulmonary disease

A primary goal of pulmonary rehabilitation is to improve health and life quality by encouraging participants to engage in exercise and to increase daily physical activity. The recent advent of motion sensors, including digital pedometers and accelerometers that measure motion as a continuous variable, have added precision to the measurement of free-living daily activity. Daily activity and exercise are variables of keen interest to proponents of the national health agenda, epidemiologists, clinical researchers, and rehabilitation interventionists. This paper summarizes issues related to conceptualizing and monitoring activity in the rehabilitation setting; reviews motion sensor methodology; compares motion-sensing devices; presents analysis issues and current and potential applications to the pulmonary rehabilitation setting; and gives practical applications and limitations.