Utility of the Actiwatch Spectrum Plus for detecting the outdoor environment and physical activity in children

To describe the performance of the Actiwatch Spectrum Plus (Philips, Respironics) for determining real world indoor and outdoor environments and physical activity in children.

Children wore the device while performing 10 different activities, ranging from sedentary to vigorous physical-activity, and under different indoor and outdoor conditions. Repeated measures ANOVA was implemented via mixed effects modeling to determine illuminance (lux) and physical activity (counts per 15 s, CP15) across conditions. Receiver operator characteristics (ROC) analysis assessed the accuracy to detect indoor versus outdoor settings.

Illuminance was found to be statistically different across indoor (793 ± 348 lux) and outdoor (4,413 ± 518 lux) conditions (P<.0001), with excellent diagnostic accuracy to detect indoor versus outdoor settings (Area under the ROC Curve, AUC 0.94); 1088 lux was identified as the optimal threshold for outdoor illuminance (sensitivity: 93.0%; specificity: 85.0%). Using published activity ranges, we found that when children were sitting, 94% of the physical-activity readings were classified as sedentary or light. When children were walking, 88% of readings were classified as light, and when children were running, 77% of readings were classified as moderate or vigorous.

The Actiwatch Spectrum Plus performed well during real world activities in children, showing excellent diagnostic accuracy at 1088 lux as a threshold to detect indoor versus outdoor environments and in categorizing physical activity.