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How Many Days Are Necessary to Represent an Infant's Typical Daily Leg Movement Behavior Using Wearable Sensors?
Weiyang Deng1, Ivan A Trujillo-Priego2, Beth A Smith2
1Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, University of Southern California, 1540 Alcazar Street, CHP 155, Los Angeles, CA 90089-9006 (USA).
Insights
Two days of wearable sensor data capture typical infant leg movement, without significant weekday or weekend differences. This finding aids neuromotor assessment by establishing efficient data collection protocols for infants.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Neuromotor Assessment
- Infant Movement Analysis
- Wearable Sensor Technology
Background:
- Infant movement characteristics can distinguish typical development from developmental disabilities.
- Wearable sensors offer a method for measuring infant movement in natural settings.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the optimal number of days for capturing representative infant daily movement.
- To investigate potential differences in infant movement between weekdays and weekend days.
Main Methods:
- Prospective observational study involving 10 typically developing infants (1-5 months old).
- Leg movement activity was recorded using wearable sensors for 7 consecutive days.
- Data analyzed for movement rate, acceleration, and duration; Bland-Altman plots used for comparison.
Main Results:
- A 2-day data collection period demonstrated less than 10% difference from the 7-day standard for key movement metrics.
- Differences in leg movement rate, duration, and acceleration between weekdays and weekends were minimal (under 12%).
Conclusions:
- Collecting 2 consecutive days of data is sufficient for reliable infant leg movement measurement.
- No significant difference in infant movement patterns was observed between weekdays and weekend days.
- Findings support optimized data collection for neuromotor assessments and outcome tracking in infants.
Background:
Characteristics of movement can differentiate infants with typical development and infants with or at risk of developmental disabilities. We used wearable sensors to measure infants' typical movement patterns in the natural environment.
Objective:
Our objectives were to determine (1) how many days were sufficient to represent an infant's typical daily performance, and (2) if there was a difference in performance between weekdays and weekend days.
Design:
This was a prospective, observational study.
Methods:
We used wearable sensors to collect 7 consecutive days of data for leg movement activity, from 10 infants with typical development (1-5 months old). We identified each leg movement, and its average acceleration, peak acceleration, and duration. Bland-Altman plots were used to compare the standard (average of 7 days) with 6 options (1 day, the average of days 1 and 2, through the average of days 1 through 6). Additionally, the average of the first 2 weekdays was compared with the average of 2 weekend days.
Results:
The absolute difference between the average of the first 2 days and the standards fell below 10% of the standards (movement rate = 8.5%; duration = 3.7%; average acceleration = 2.8%; peak acceleration = 3.8%, respectively). The mean absolute difference between weekdays and weekends for leg movement rate, duration, average acceleration, and peak acceleration was 11.6%, 3.7%, 7.2%, and 7.3% of the corresponding standard.
Limitations:
The small sample size and age range limit extrapolation of the results.
Conclusions:
Our results suggest the best option is to collect data for 2 consecutive days and that movement did not differ between weekdays and weekend days. Our results will inform the clinical measurement of full-day infant leg movement for neuromotor assessment and outcome purposes.