Measuring Free-Living Physical Activity in Adults With and Without Neurologic Dysfunction With a Triaxial Accelerometer
Abstract
Objective To investigate the reliability, validity, and utility of a triaxial accelerometer to measure physical activity in the free-living environment in adults with and without neurologic dysfunction.Design Repeated-measures design.Setting General community.Participants Volunteer sample of 17 men and 30 women (age range, 28-91y) living in the community with stroke of greater than 6 months in duration (n=20), Parkinson disease (n=7), or multiple sclerosis (n=11), and healthy but sedentary controls (n=9).Interventions Not applicable.Main outcome measures Physical activity measured with the TriTrac RT3 accelerometer, 7-day recall questionnaire, and activity diary.Results The accelerometer reliably measured free-living physical activity (intraclass correlation coefficient, .85; 95% confidence interval, .74-.91; P=.000). The standard error of measurement indicated that a second test would differ from a baseline test by +/-23%. Mean daily RT3 data collected in the first 3 days differed significantly from that of the mean daily RT3 data collected over 7 days. The RT3 appeared to distinguish level of mobility better than the 7-day recall questionnaire, and participants found the RT3 to be a user-friendly and acceptable measure of physical activity.Conclusions The triaxial accelerometer provided a stable measure of free-living physical activity, was found to distinguish between people with varying levels of mobility, and was well tolerated by participants. The results indicate that collecting data for 3 days was not reflective of data collected over 7 days.
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Test-retest reliability varied in different studies, but moderate agreements (ICC 0.54 and 0.68) were found for 3- and 7-day monitoring of daily activity counts.
“The test–retest reliability varied in different studies, but moderate agreements (ICC 0.54 and 0.68) were found for 3- and 7-day monitoring of daily activity counts [56].”
From Wearable sensors for clinical applications in epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and stroke: A mixed-methods systematic review (2018) · cites this paper as [56]
In stroke, the step counts and measures of upper extremity and physical activity were shown to be reliable.
“In stroke, the step counts and measures of upper extremity and physical activity were shown to be reliable [48, 49, 52, 56–59]”
From Wearable sensors for clinical applications in epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and stroke: A mixed-methods systematic review (2018) · cites this paper as [56]
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- Authors
- Hale, L. A., Pal, J., & Becker, I.
- Affiliations
- University of Otago (NZ)
- Corresponding author
- Hale, Leigh A.
- ORCID
- Hale, Leigh A.
- Venue
- Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2008-09
- Volume
- 89
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1765-1771
- ISSN
- 0003-9993 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2082956218
- Cited by
- 118
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2025: 6 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 5.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Context-Aware Activity Recognition Systems
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation › Balance, Gait, and Falls Prevention
- Keywords
- physical activity measurement, triaxial accelerometer, neurologic dysfunction, stroke, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, sedentary adults, accelerometer validity, mobility level, activity diaries, measurement error, free-living physical activity
- MeSH terms
- Acceleration, Stroke Rehabilitation, Activities of Daily Living, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Ambulatory Care, Exercise Test, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Motor Activity, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson Disease, Surveys and Questionnaires, ROC Curve, Reproducibility of Results, Linear Models, Stroke
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