Estimating physical activity in youth using an ankle accelerometer

This study developed and validated a vector magnitude (VM) two-regression model (2RM) for use with an ankle-worn ActiGraph accelerometer. For model development, 181 youth (mean +/- SD; age, 12.0 +/- 1.5 yr) completed 30 min of supine rest and 2-7 structured activities. For cross-validation, 42 youth (age, 12.6 +/- 0.8yr) completed approximately 2 hr of unstructured physical activity (PA). PA data were collected using an ActiGraph accelerometer, (non-dominant ankle) and the VM was expressed as counts/5-s. Measured energy expenditure (Cosmed K4b(2)) was converted to youth METs (METy; activity VO2 divided by resting VO2). A coefficient of variation (CV) was calculated for each activity to distinguish continuous walking/running from intermittent activity. The ankle VM sedentary behavior threshold was 10 counts/5-s, and a CV15 counts/5-s was used to identify walking/running. The ankle VM2RM was within 0.42 METy of measured METy during the unstructured PA (P>0.05). The ankle VM2RM was within 5.7 min of measured time spent in sedentary, LPA, MPA, and VPA (P>0.05). Compared to the K4b(2), the ankle VM2RM provided similar estimates to measured values during unstructured play and provides a feasible wear location for future studies.