Ambulatory Tasks and Journeys: A Framework for Free-Living Behaviour

Standard accelerometer summaries obscure meaningful differences in how people move while upright. We introduce an operational two-class Ambulatory Behaviour Framework that separates Ambulatory Tasks-periods of standing and short continuous stepping bouts (<1 min) that are indicative of activity in a single locus-from Ambulatory Journeys-long continuous stepping bouts (≥1 min) that are indicative of movement between locations.

We analysed thigh-worn activPAL3 data from 3545 participants in the age-46 sweep of the 1970 British Cohort Study (24,815 valid monitor-days). Event-based algorithms grouped upright events and classified them as an Ambulatory Task or Journey; linear models examined associations with sitting time and differences by sex and BMI.

Mean upright time averaged 6.50 h day^-1; Ambulatory Tasks dominated (5.91 h; 90.6% of upright exposure), whereas Ambulatory Journeys contributed 0.61 h (9.4%). Each additional hour of Ambulatory Tasks corresponded to 0.61 h less sitting (β = -0.61 h; 95% CI: -0.63 to -0.61), while an extra hour of Ambulatory Journeys displaced only 0.04 h of sitting (β = -0.04 h; 95% CI: -0.044 to -0.039). Women accumulated significantly more time in Ambulatory Tasks and less sitting time than men. Both upright behaviours declined with increasing BMI.

Ambulatory Tasks substantially replace sitting time, whereas Ambulatory Journeys leave sitting essentially unchanged. Interventions to displace sitting should concentrate on fostering frequent, brief, context-embedded tasks throughout the day. This novel framework yields interpretable, sensor-agnostic metrics to target behaviour change and standardise reporting of free-living mobility.