Sensitivity and specificity of measuring children's free-living cycling with a thigh-worn Fibion® accelerometer

Arto J Pesola; Samad Esmaeilzadeh; Pirjo Hakala; Nina Kallio; Päivi Berg; Marko Havu; Tiina Rinne

doi:10.3389/fspor.2023.1113687

Sensitivity and specificity of measuring children's free-living cycling with a thigh-worn Fibion® accelerometer

Front Sports Act Living. 2023 May 23:5:1113687. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2023.1113687. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Arto J Pesola^#¹, Samad Esmaeilzadeh^#¹, Pirjo Hakala¹, Nina Kallio¹, Päivi Berg², Marko Havu³, Tiina Rinne⁴

Affiliations

¹ Active Life Lab, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, Mikkeli, Finland.
² Juvenia - Youth Research and Development Centre, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, Mikkeli, Finland.
³ Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.
⁴ Department of Built Environment, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Objective: Cycling is an important part of children's active travel, but its measurement using accelerometry is a challenge. The aim of the present study was to evaluate physical activity duration and intensity, and sensitivity and specificity of free-living cycling measured with a thigh-worn accelerometer.

Methods: Participants were 160 children (44 boys) aged 11.5 ± 0.9 years who wore a triaxial Fibion® accelerometer on right thigh for 8 days, 24 h per day, and reported start time and duration of all cycling, walking and car trips to a travel log. Linear mixed effects models were used to predict and compare Fibion-measured activity and moderate-to-vigorous activity duration, cycling duration and metabolic equivalents (METs) between the travel types. Sensitivity and specificity of cycling bouts during cycling trips as compared to walking and car trips was also evaluated.

Results: Children reported a total of 1,049 cycling trips (mean 7.08 ± 4.58 trips per child), 379 walking trips (3.08 ± 2.81) and 716 car trips (4.79 ± 3.96). There was no difference in activity and moderate-to-vigorous activity duration (p > .105), a lower cycling duration (-1.83 min, p < .001), and a higher MET-level (0.95, p < .001) during walking trips as compared to cycling trips. Both activity (-4.54 min, p < .001), moderate-to-vigorous activity (-3.60 min, p < .001), cycling duration (-1.74 min, p < .001) and MET-level (-0.99, p < .001) were lower during car trips as compared to cycling trips. Fibion showed the sensitivity of 72.2% and specificity of 81.9% for measuring cycling activity type during the reported cycling trips as compared to walking and car trips when the minimum required duration for cycling was less than 29 s.

Conclusions: The thigh-worn Fibion® accelerometer measured a greater duration of cycling, a lower MET-level, and a similar duration of total activity and moderate-to-vigorous activity during free-living cycling trips as compared to walking trips, suggesting it can be used to measure free-living cycling activity and moderate-to-vigorous activity duration in 10-12-year-old children.

Keywords: METS (metabolic equivalent of tasks); accelerometer; active travel; cycling; energy expenditure; moderate-to-vigorous activity; walking.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland under Grants OKM/30/626/2019 and OKM/1097/626/2020. The funding agency had no role in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication.