A procedure for evaluating portable heart monitors

Portable heart rate monitors are potentially useful for regulating exercise intensity. This paper describes procedures to evaluate these devices while subjects are resting, cycling, or running. Of the five monitors tested, all performed reasonably well while subjects were at rest; however, with one exception, performance deteriorated when the monitors were used during exercise. Even so, depending on the level of accuracy required, some of the monitors remained useful during cycling, but only one monitor was consistently accurate while subjects were running. This evidence indicates that, before selecting a particular monitor, potential users of such equipment should carefully consider many things, including the circumstances under which the equipment will be employed. The procedures reported in this paper should be generally useful in evaluating the performance of a variety of devices for monitoring heart rate.