James W. Navalta (Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences) coauthored an original research article titled, “Does digital device software lead to exclusion? Investigating a portable metabolic analysis system and the input of sex data on physiological parameters,” published in Frontiers in Digital Health (Impact Factor 3.2) as part of the “Digital Health Past, Present, and Future” research topic. In collaboration with Olivia R. Perez, Michael W. H. Wong, and Dustin W. Davis, the study investigated whether selecting “female” or “male” in the COSMED K5 metabolic system software affected physiological measurements during exercise (e.g., calories burned).
When the same participants completed identical exercise sessions with each sex input, the resulting data were statistically the same. The authors concluded that the binary input structure offers no analytical benefit but may exclude gender-diverse people. They recommend that device manufacturers update software to include more inclusive options, improving gender-diverse people's access to and representation in scientific research with digital devices.
