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Utility of accelerometer thresholds for classifying sitting in office workers.

Melody Oliver1, Grant M Schofield, Hannah M Badland

  • 1Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. melody.oliver@aut.ac.nz

Preventive Medicine
|September 7, 2010
PubMed
Summary

A threshold of 0 counts per 15-second epoch using Actical accelerometers is best for measuring sitting time in office workers. However, wide agreement limits suggest limited accuracy for distinguishing sitting duration.

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Area of Science:

  • Occupational Health
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Physical Activity Measurement

Background:

  • Accurate measurement of sedentary behavior, particularly sitting time, is crucial for understanding occupational health risks.
  • Actical accelerometers are commonly used to assess physical activity and sedentary time, but their accuracy in specific populations like office workers requires validation.
  • Establishing reliable accelerometer thresholds is essential for objective assessment of sitting behavior in workplace settings.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the effectiveness of various Actical accelerometer count thresholds for accurately determining sitting time among office workers.
  • To compare the performance of different accelerometer thresholds against a criterion measure (activPAL inclinometer) for classifying sitting behavior.
  • To assess the agreement and utility of identified thresholds for quantifying sitting time in an office-based occupational setting.

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Main Methods:

  • 21 office workers in Auckland, New Zealand, participated, wearing Actical accelerometers and activPAL inclinometers for 48 hours.
  • Data from both devices were synchronized by date and time for each 15-second epoch.
  • Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses and Bland-Altman methodology were employed to assess threshold accuracy and agreement.

Main Results:

  • A threshold of 0 counts per 15-second epoch demonstrated the highest area under the curve (AUC) of 0.759, indicating superior sensitivity and specificity.
  • Despite the optimal threshold, wide 95% limits of agreement (-30.8 to 297.5 minutes) were observed for sitting time.
  • Significant differences in AUC values across tested thresholds confirmed variations in their classification accuracy (p<0.001).

Conclusions:

  • The threshold of 0 counts per 15-second epoch appears most accurate for quantifying sitting time in office workers using Actical accelerometers.
  • The substantial limits of agreement highlight a significant limitation in the precise distinction of sitting time for this population.
  • Further research may be needed to refine accelerometer-based sitting time measurement in occupational settings, considering the identified discrepancies.