Post 4. Measuring children’s physical activity using accelerometers – overview
Anyone involved in physical activity (PA) and health research knows that actually measuring children’s PA is fraught with challenges, such is the complexity of this behaviour. Kids routinely switch their activity behaviours throughout the day, depending on their routines, social interactions, physical environments, and even the weather! Throughout a typical day kids will accumulate time through the full intensity spectrum from being sedentary, in light, moderate, and vigorous PA. Getting an accurate measurement of these behaviours is difficult, and really researchers only end up with ‘estimates’ of PA behaviours and time spent in the different intensities, rather than precise values. Read More
