A Structured and Flexible Language for Physical Activity Assessment and Characterization

Developing more accurate assessments of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) is an important public health research priority. Assessing PA and SB is challenging in all segments of the population, but it is especially difficult in children due to cognitive limitations and more sporadic and intermittent activity patterns. Moreover, they are influenced by several factors including temporal-spatial constraints and social conditions. To accurately assess PA and SB, it is essential to clearly define methods for describing all these factors. The goal of this paper is to potentiate advances in the field by proposing a base ontology for characterizing physical activity, sedentary behavior, and the context in which it occurs. The ontology would establish a flexible base language to facilitate standardized descriptions of these behaviors for researchers and public health professionals.