Comprehensive assessment of the accuracy of heart rate determination with the Healbe GoBe3 smart band

BACKGROUND: Increased resting heart rate (HR) is an independent risk factor for overall mortality, sudden cardiac death, and death from cardiovascular diseases (CVD), as well as a worsening factor for CVD patients’ prognosis. At the same time, HR is easy to measure and monitor independently using various devices. The widespread use of personal wearable devices needs their HR accuracy assessment.

AIMS: To evaluate the accuracy of HR determination with the Healbe GoBe3 smart band (Healbe GoBe3).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: An open, observational, single-center study was performed. Subjects underwent physical examination, electrocardiography (ECG), HR recording using Healbe GoBe3, ECG Holter monitoring (HMECG). For each participant, the study duration was 14 days. The reliability of HR measured in everyday life using the Healbe GoBe3 was assessed in comparison with HMECG as the “gold” standard. For statistical analysis, Microsoft Excel 2016 and STATISTICA 10.0 software were used. To assess the reliability of HR measured in everyday life using Healbe GoBe3 in relation to HMECG, the hypothesis of the equality of average HR values measured by both methods was tested, a correlation analysis of time series of HR values was carried out, and Bland-Altman plots were used to visualize differences in HR values.

RESULTS: The study involved 45 healthy individuals (22 men, 49.2±6.47 years). HR data were obtained over a 24-hour period, including the subjects' routine working day. The results demonstrated good convergence between data on HR using Healbe GoBe3 and HMECG. The relative error in determining the HR of Healbe GoBe3 did not exceed 3.2%. The smallest relative error was recorded at night and early morning hours (0.3÷1.1%). During the daytime it was slightly higher - from 2.0% to 3.2%. A significantly high positive correlation was obtained between HR recorded using both devices, both at night (MCorrP from 0.75 to 0.85; p <0.001) and during daytime (MCorrP from 0.77 to 0.85; p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: The accuracy comparison of 24-hour HR measurements by Healbe GoBe3 showed that mostly, they were within the acceptable error range (less than 3.2%). Future studies should include HR Healbe GoBe3 assessment in patients with various diseases.