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Quantitative Time Profiling of Children's Activity and Motion
Claire M Barnes1, Cain C T Clark, Mark D Holton
11Centre for Nanohealth, College of Engineering, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea, Wales, UNITED KINGDOM; 2Engineering Behaviour Analytics in Sport and Exercise (E-BASE) Research Group, College of Engineering, Swansea University, Bay Campus, Fabian Way, Swansea, Wales, UNITED KINGDOM; and 3Applied Sports Science Technology and Medicine Research Centre (A-STEM), College of Engineering, Swansea University, Bay Campus, Fabian Way, Swansea, Wales, UNITED KINGDOM.
Insights
This study used accelerometers to analyze children's movement during fitness tests, finding gait control is key to performance and linked to body mass. This helps assess exercise mechanics in children.
Area of Science:
- Biomechanics
- Pediatric Exercise Science
- Sports Medicine
Background:
- Assessing children's mechanical movement patterns during fitness tests is crucial for understanding their physical capabilities.
- Standardized fitness assessments provide a controlled environment to study exercise responses.
- Accelerometer technology offers objective measurement of movement dynamics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish children's mechanical movement patterns during a standardized fitness assessment using accelerometers.
- To profile individual time courses of exercise and gait parameters across a cohort of children.
- To correlate gait mechanics with physical performance and body metrics.
Main Methods:
- 103 children (mean age 10.3 years) performed a multistage fitness test wearing ankle-mounted accelerometers.
- Gait data (foot impact force, leg lift angle, stride frequency) were collected at 40 Hz.
- Stride quality was assessed using a whole-history metric, analyzed against physical performance and body measures.
Main Results:
- Stride angle showed strong positive correlations with accelerometer counts (r = 0.79-0.81).
- High performers demonstrated linear speed increases through stride extension, indicating effective gait control.
- Stride quality negatively correlated with body mass index (r = -0.61) and body mass (r = -0.60).
Conclusions:
- Accelerometer-derived gait parameters provide detailed insights into children's movement mechanics during exercise.
- Gait control accuracy is a significant factor in multistage fitness test performance.
- Movement profiles allow for nuanced assessment of children's responses to increasing exercise intensity.
Introduction:
The aim of this study was to establish children's mechanical movement patterns during a standardized assessment of fitness by using an accelerometer. Further to this, our objective was to use the information from the accelerometer to profile individual time courses of exercise, across the cohort.
Methods:
A multistage fitness test study was performed with 103 children (mean ± SD age = 10.3 ± 0.6 yr). Children wore an ankle-mounted accelerometer, and gait data were collected on radial acceleration traces obtained at a frequency of 40 Hz. Time-resolved metrics of foot impact force, maximum leg lift angle, and stride frequency were used to profile children's performance across the test duration. A whole-history metric of stride quality, based on the changing ratio of stride length to stride frequency, was used in bivariate analyses of physical performance and body metrics.
Results:
Stride angle derived by our protocol was found to have a strong positive correlation with integrated acceleration, synonymous with counts, widely used in the sport science community (r = 0.81, 0.79, and 0.80 across different stages of the multistage fitness test). Accelerometer data show that differing performance in the test is related to the children's ability to accurately control their gait, with high performers displaying a linearly increasing speed, delivered through stride extension and well matched to the demand level of the test. A negative correlation was found between stride quality and body measures of body mass index (r = -0.61) and body mass (r = -0.60).
Conclusion:
Profiles of the gait parameters provide information on the mechanics of child's motion, allowing detailed assessment of multiple parameter during increasing intensities of exercise.
