Classification Accuracy of a Wearable Activity Tracker for Assessing Sedentary Behavior and Physical Activity in 3–5-Year-Old Children

Wonwoo Byun, Jung-Min Lee, Youngwon Kim and Timothy A. Brusseau
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Wonwoo Byun: Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
Jung-Min Lee: School of Physical Education, Kyung Hee University, Yongin 17104, Korea
Youngwon Kim: Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
Timothy A. Brusseau: Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-8

Abstract: This study examined the accuracy of the Fitbit activity tracker (FF) for quantifying sedentary behavior (SB) and varying intensities of physical activity (PA) in 3–5-year-old children. Twenty-eight healthy preschool-aged children (Girls: 46%, Mean age: 4.8 ± 1.0 years) wore the FF and were directly observed while performing a set of various unstructured and structured free-living activities from sedentary to vigorous intensity. The classification accuracy of the FF for measuring SB, light PA (LPA), moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), and total PA (TPA) was examined calculating Pearson correlation coefficients (r), mean absolute percent error (MAPE), Cohen’s kappa ( k ), sensitivity (Se), specificity (Sp), and area under the receiver operating curve (ROC-AUC). The classification accuracies of the FF (ROC-AUC) were 0.92, 0.63, 0.77 and 0.92 for SB, LPA, MVPA and TPA, respectively. Similarly, values of kappa, Se, Sp and percentage of correct classification were consistently high for SB and TPA, but low for LPA and MVPA. The FF demonstrated excellent classification accuracy for assessing SB and TPA, but lower accuracy for classifying LPA and MVPA. Our findings suggest that the FF should be considered as a valid instrument for assessing time spent sedentary and overall physical activity in preschool-aged children.

Keywords: accelerometer; sedentary behavior; physical activity; preschool; children; obesity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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