Estimating sleep efficiency in 10- to- 13-year-olds using a waist-worn accelerometer

Area of Science:

• Pediatric sleep science
• Movement behavior analysis
• Biomedical engineering

Background:

• Wrist-worn accelerometers are standard for sleep assessment, while waist-worn ones track movement.
• A need exists for sleep assessment using waist-worn accelerometers in continuous monitoring studies.
• Developing a validated algorithm for waist-worn devices can enhance data collection in children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a sleep efficiency algorithm for waist-worn Actical accelerometers in children.
• To establish a sleep likelihood score cut-off for accurate sleep efficiency prediction.
• To assess the agreement between waist-worn and wrist-worn accelerometers for sleep efficiency measurement.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involved 50 healthy children aged 10-13 years.
• Participants wore waist-worn Actical and wrist-worn Actiwatch 2 accelerometers for 8 nights.
• An algorithm and cut-off were developed in one group and tested in another, comparing Actical to Actiwatch 2 sleep efficiency.

Main Results:

• Waist-worn Actical mean sleep efficiency was 89.0% (SD 3.9%) vs. Actiwatch 2 at 88.7% (SD 3.1%) in the test group.
• Bland-Altman analysis showed considerable agreement between devices for nightly and weekly sleep efficiency.
• The developed algorithm demonstrated validity for estimating sleep efficiency.

Conclusions:

• Waist-worn Actical accelerometers can accurately predict sleep efficiency in children aged 10-13 in field settings.
• This validates the use of waist-worn accelerometers for comprehensive sleep and movement behavior assessment.
• The findings support integrating sleep analysis into studies primarily focused on movement behaviors.