Examining accelerometer validity for estimating physical activity in pre‐schoolers during free‐living activity

Abstract

The present study examined the efficacy of accelerometers for the assessment of free play physical activity (PA) in pre–school‐aged children with consideration of epoch length and wear location. Following ethics approval, parental informed consent, and child assent, 66 pre‐schoolers aged 3‐4 years (30 females and 36 males) wore an accelerometer (ActiGraph GT3X; sampling at 100 Hz) on their non‐dominant wrist and their right hip during 1 hour of free play. Concurrently, direct observation, using the OSRAC‐P, was used to determine sedentary behavior (SB), light (LPA), or moderate‐to‐vigorous (MVPA) intensity PA. For the ActiGraph, vertical axis counts and summed vector magnitude (VM) for hip, and VM for wrist, were downloaded using 5‐, 10‐, 15‐, and 30‐second epoch lengths. Accelerometer counts were averaged over each 30 seconds to match the observation periods. Receiver operating curve analysis was used to evaluate the ability of the ActiGraph to predict SB, LPA, and MVPA. SB and MVPA obtained from wrist‐ and hip‐worn accelerometers demonstrated fair agreement with direct observation (AUC => 0.7). LPA determined by accelerometer had poor agreement with observed LPA, for both the hip and wrist placement (AUC = 0.53‐0.56), with weak levels of specificity (0.34‐0.43), although sensitivity was fair (0.74‐0.84). This study is the first to examine accelerometer validity, considering wear location and epoch in pre‐schoolers during free play, and suggests that the ActiGraph is a fair measure for SB and MVPA in pre‐school children. Neither placement performed predominantly better irrespective of epochs or used count data (vertical axis, VM).

Fundamental Movement Skills and Accelerometer-Measured Physical Activity Levels during Early Childhood: A Systematic Review

“…ActiGraph accelerometers were used in eighty percent of the articles examining PA, demonstrating a preference in accelerometer brand within childhood research. ActiGraph accelerometers have been consistently reported to be accurate and reliable for younger populations [ 55 , 100 , 101 ], which makes them a strong choice for objective PA measurement. The popularity of this tool also highlighted the use of the processing programme ActiLife for analysis of accelerometer outputs [ 44 , 47 , 50 , 51 , 52 ], a programme which has been criticised in the literature for its frequency filtration method and the effect on the data collected [ 102 ].…”

“…Accelerometer placement at the hip was reported in 90% of the articles, once again showing a clear preference in this element of measurement practice for children. Interestingly, research has shown while there are certainly differences in measurement outcomes at different body placements, including the wrist and hip, these are not significant [ 100 , 110 ]. This suggests wrist placement may be a viable option for wear in the young child population, resulting in higher levels of wear time and compliance [ 111 ], possibly resulting in a larger quantity of data.…”

“…This suggests wrist placement may be a viable option for wear in the young child population, resulting in higher levels of wear time and compliance [ 111 ], possibly resulting in a larger quantity of data. While accelerometry analysis and techniques require improvements to measure light PA (LPA), both sedentary behaviour (SB) and MVPA can be measured accurately [ 100 , 107 ] and, most importantly, these measures are considered the two most important measures when observing young children’s PA. Accelerometry has been criticised for the inability to identify the type of activity being performed [ 112 ]. Recent work by Duncan and colleagues [ 82 ] has begun to try and establish cut points for certain types of activity and FMS when wearing accelerometers, and this research is an important step as it will allow researchers to identify if children are performing sufficient quality PA and practicing essential FMS, as different types of FMS will be identifiable from data outputs.…”

Comparability of ActivPAL-Based Estimates of Meeting Physical Activity Guidelines for Preschool Children

“…Furthermore, using the epoch of 15 s may not be able to capture the sporadic and spontaneous nature of preschoolers' movements. However, previous validation studies of the accelerometer were usually conducted under laboratory or controlled environments, and the findings did not support the notion that short epochs (e.g., 5 s and 10 s) performed better than longer epochs (e.g., 30 s and 60 s) for preschool children [38,39]. Nevertheless, a shorter epoch may be more appropriate to characterize free-living PA for this age group [39,40].…”

Real-Time Tracking of Human Neck Postures and Movements

“…This neckband can also be used to take measurements of the range of motion of the neck regions during therapy and rehabilitation [ 28 ]. Research works related to the use of sensors to track movements by obtaining kinematic data have been presented extensively in the literature under the field called Actigraphy [ 29 , 30 ]. These approaches have also been widely used for tracking movement through commercially available wrist-worn fitness monitors.…”