Wearable Artificial Intelligence for Assessing Physical Activity in High School Children

Arfan Ahmed (), Sarah Aziz, Uvais Qidwai, Faisal Farooq, Jingxuan Shan, Murugan Subramanian, Lotfi Chouchane, Rola EINatour, Alaa Abd-Alrazaq, Satchidananda Pandas and Javaid Sheikh
Additional contact information
Arfan Ahmed: AI Center for Precision Health, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Doha P.O. Box 24144, Qatar
Sarah Aziz: AI Center for Precision Health, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Doha P.O. Box 24144, Qatar
Uvais Qidwai: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Qatar University, Doha P.O. Box 34110, Qatar
Faisal Farooq: Center for Digital Health and Precision Medicine, Qatar Computing Research Institute, Doha P.O. Box 34110, Qatar
Jingxuan Shan: Genetic Intelligence Laboratory, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Qatar Foundation, Doha P.O. Box 24144, Qatar
Murugan Subramanian: Genetic Intelligence Laboratory, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Qatar Foundation, Doha P.O. Box 24144, Qatar
Lotfi Chouchane: Genetic Intelligence Laboratory, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Qatar Foundation, Doha P.O. Box 24144, Qatar
Rola EINatour: Communications Division, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Doha P.O. Box 24144, Qatar
Alaa Abd-Alrazaq: AI Center for Precision Health, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Doha P.O. Box 24144, Qatar
Satchidananda Pandas: Regulatory Biology Laboratory, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
Javaid Sheikh: AI Center for Precision Health, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Doha P.O. Box 24144, Qatar

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Eighty one percent of adolescents aged 11–17 years are inadequately physically active worldwide. Physical activity (PA) recommendations for high school children have not been studied previously in schools in the Qatar region. The objectives of the study were: (i) to assess the level of compliance of the recommended PA and to assess if there are any gender differences; and (ii) to analyze the recommended step count compliance during school and non-school days. An observational cross-sectional study was conducted. Twenty-nine children (12 boys and 17 girls) aged 13–17 years (15.24 ± 1.46) took part in this study. Participants wore Fitbit Charge 5 wrist bands for three weeks to collect various digital biomarkers including moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and step counts (tracking during out-of-school time and school time). Based on this study, high school children in the two Qatar region schools did not meet the MVPA and steps/day recommendation by the established agencies: 38% of the total study group met the recommended 60 min/day of activity (50% boys, 29% girls). Gender differences were also observed in PA levels and steps per day: for non-school days, 17% met the recommended 10,000 steps/day (25% boys, 12% girls). There was a pattern of greater PA performance and steps during the weekdays as opposed to the weekend, but these values showed no robust evidence in favor of H1 or statistical significance for step counts. However, the evidence was robust in favor of H1 (difference between weekend and weekday) due to a statistically significant difference for meeting the 60 min/day activity. While further studies are required to establish if this is a general trend in Qatari schools, this pilot study does highlight the need to design more effective programs and messaging strategies to improve PA levels in the high school population.

Keywords: children; adolescents; physical activity; exercise; wearable devices; fitness trackers; Fitbit; Qatar (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/1/638/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/1/638/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2022:i:1:p:638-:d:1019846

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().