Variability of some objective measures of physical activity

The purpose of this study was to determine how many days subjects should be monitored to provide an estimate of habitual physical activity in employed men engaged in a wide range of occupations. Caloric intake, movement recorders (accelerometers and pedometers), and heart rate were the measurements...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medicine and science in sports and exercise 1992-10, Vol.24 (10), p.1167-1172
Main Authors: GRETEBECK, R. J, MONTOYE, H. J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Biological and medical sciences
Energy Intake
Energy Metabolism
Exercise
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Heart Rate
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Monitoring, Physiologic
Reproducibility of Results
Research Design
Space life sciences
Time Factors
Vertebrates: body movement. Posture. Locomotion. Flight. Swimming. Physical exercise. Rest. Sports
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The purpose of this study was to determine how many days subjects should be monitored to provide an estimate of habitual physical activity in employed men engaged in a wide range of occupations. Caloric intake, movement recorders (accelerometers and pedometers), and heart rate were the measurements studied in 30 subjects who were monitored during their waking hours for 7 continuous days. A repeated measures ANOVA showed no significant difference between days (P > 0.05) for any of the measures when only weekdays were compared. However, when weekend days were included a majority of the measures showed a significant F-ratio (P < 0.05). An estimate was made of the number of days required to measure a 7-d period with less than 5% error. The average for all the different measures was 4.9 d. It appears that at least 5 or 6 d are needed to minimize the intra-individual variance a reasonable degree. Weekdays as well as weekend days need to be included.
ISSN:0195-9131
1530-0315
DOI:10.1249/00005768-199210000-00016