Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

The ActiGraph has a high ability to measure physical activity, however, it lacks an accurate posture classification to measure sedentary behaviour. The aim of the present study was to develop an ActiGraph (waist-worn, 30Hz) posture classification to detect prolonged sitting bouts, and to compare the classification to proprietary ActiGraph data. The activPAL, a highly valid posture classification device, served as reference criterion.¹ Both sensors were worn by 38 office workers over a median duration of 9 days. An automated feature selection extracted the relevant signal information for a minute based posture classification. The machine-learning algorithm with optimal feature number to predict the time in prolonged sitting bouts (≥5 and ≥10 minutes) was searched and compared to the activPAL using Bland-Altman statistics. The comparison included optimised and frequently used cut-points (100 and 150 counts-per-minute (cpm), with and without low-frequency-extension (LFE) filtering). The new algorithm predicted the time in prolonged sitting bouts most accurate (bias ≤7 minutes/day). Of all proprietary ActiGraph methods, only 150 cpm without LFE predicted the time in prolonged sitting bouts non-significantly different from the activPAL (bias ≤18 minutes/day). However, the frequently used 100 cpm with LFE accurately predicted total sitting time (bias ≤7 minutes/day). To study the health effects of ActiGraph measured prolonged sitting, we recommend using the new algorithm. In case a cut-point is used, we recommend 150 cpm without LFE to measure prolonged sitting, and 100 cpm with LFE to measure total sitting time. However, both cpm cut-points are not recommended for a detailed bout analysis.