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Accelerometers for measuring physical activity behavior in Indian children
G V Krishnaveni1, I C Mills, S R Veena
1CSI Holdsworth Memorial Hospital, Mysore, India. gv.krishnaveni@gmail.com
Insights
Accelerometers objectively measure physical activity in Indian children. While correlations exist with diary data for activity intensity and energy expenditure, wide agreement limits highlight the need for careful data interpretation.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric physical activity assessment
- Biomedical engineering in sports science
- Public health research in South Asia
Background:
- Characterizing habitual physical activity is crucial for understanding child health.
- Objective measurement tools are needed to validate self-reported or parent-reported activity levels.
- Previous studies on accelerometer validity in children have primarily focused on Western populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the validity of accelerometers for measuring habitual physical activity in Indian children.
- To compare accelerometer-derived activity data with parent-maintained activity diaries.
- To evaluate the correlation between accelerometer counts and energy expenditure.
Main Methods:
- A cohort of 103 Indian children (mean age 6.6 years) participated.
- Physical activity was monitored for 7 days using MTI Actigraph accelerometers and concurrent parent diaries.
- Activity intensity levels (sedentary, light, moderate, vigorous) and energy expenditure were determined.
Main Results:
- Accelerometer data from 98 children were analyzed; no significant gender differences were found.
- Accelerometer-derived time spent in sedentary, light, and moderate activities showed moderate correlations with diary data (r=0.48 to 0.70).
- Total accelerometer counts correlated with energy expenditure (r=0.42), but Bland-Altman analysis revealed significant bias and wide limits of agreement.
Conclusions:
- Accelerometers are well-tolerated and objective tools for assessing free-living physical activity in children.
- While accelerometer data correlate with activity intensity and energy expenditure, significant limitations exist.
- Researchers must acknowledge these limitations when interpreting accelerometer data in pediatric populations, especially in diverse settings like India.
Objective:
To examine the validity of accelerometers for characterizing habitual physical activity patterns in Indian children.
Design:
Cohort study.
Setting:
Holdsworth Memorial Hospital, Mysore.
Subjects:
Children (N=103, mean age 6.6 years) selected from an ongoing birth cohort study.
Methods:
Physical activity was measured over 7 days using accelerometers (MTI Actigraph) and concurrent parent-maintained activity diaries. Actigraph counts per minute representing sedentary (<10), light (< 400), moderate (<3000) and vigorous activity were determined using a structured activity session in a separate group of 10 children. In 46 children chosen for validating accelerometers, time spent in different activity levels according to diaries was determined. Energy Expenditure (EE) was calculated from diaries using a factorial method.
Results:
Ninety-eight children wore the monitor for > or = 4 days. Total counts and time spent in different activity levels were similar in boys and girls (P>0.2). Among 46 children chosen for comparisons, time spent in sedentary (r =0.48, P=0.001), light (r=0.70, P<0.001) and moderate activities (r=0.29, P=0.054) according to diaries correlated with those derived from counts, and total Actigraph counts correlated with EE (r=0.42, P=0.004). Bland-Altman analysis showed systematic bias, and wide limits of agreement between these methods for time spent in different activity levels.
Conclusions:
Accelerometers are a well tolerated and objective way of measuring activity behavior in free-living children. Though accelerometer counts correlate with time spent in activity of varying intensity and energy expenditure derived from parent-maintained diaries, wide limits of agreement show that the limitations of accelerometers need to be recognized in interpreting the data that they generate.
