Four ways to measure physical activity (3)
The third way that we measure physical activity is using an electronic pedometer. This device is really small, it's similar to a pager, counts the number of steps a person takes. You can wear it usually on your hip, but there are some other locations. The good thing is that they can be very inexpensive, they're very easy for people to use, and they've become kind of popular, so people are familiar with these devices, and it gives the researcher an objective measurement of activity. So the person puts it on, they wear it all day, and they can tell you a number at the end of the day of the number of steps that they took. The bad thing is that this doesn't necessarily give us information about the intensity or the duration of their activity, so those components are missing when you use a pedometer, and it's not designed to capture all bodily movements. So, for example, if I went to the gym and decided to go for a swim, you can't wear the pedometer in the water, it wouldn't cover that activity, it wouldn't cover upper body activities, and so there are some cons associated with a pedometer as well.