Accelerometers are reliable, valid, and versatile tools for measuring physical activity for research studies. However, compliance to protocols of accelerometer use by participants of research studies is crucial in order to ensure the most accurate measure of their physical activity. It is possible that aging effects on physical and cognitive health will limit the ability of an older adult to be compliant with wearing an accelerometer. Unfortunately, research investigations into the factors that predict compliance to accelerometer protocols in older adults are nonexistent.
We used data from the study entitled Environmental Correlates of Physical Activity Among Older Adults: A Healthy Aging Network Research Collaboration to investigate compliance to an accelerometer protocol in a cohort of 201 individuals 65 years of age and older in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. We had two main hypotheses: (a) Compliance generally decreases with age among older adults and (b) the effect of age on compliance will be attenuated when controlling for demographic variables, cognitive and physical functioning, and walking behavior.
The results show that 89.90% (n=178) of participants had at least four valid days of accelerometer wear and therefore met the valid person criteria and 50.00% (n=99) of participants had seven valid days of accelerometer wear and therefore met the compliant person criteria based on the accelerometer protocol. The best multivariate logistic regression model to predict being a valid person included IADL (p=0.002) score and a constant (p<.001) while the best multivariate logistic regression model to predict being a compliant person included Modified Guralnik Lower Body Score (p=0.008), White race (p=0.018), and a constant (p=0.036).
While we hypothesized that compliance would decrease with advancing age in older adults, this analysis found no significant relationship between age and compliance. The results of this analysis did, however, show that several characteristics were associated with compliance, which supports the idea that compliance to an accelerometer protocol is influenced by certain characteristics among older adults. This research has public health significance because participants with characteristics associated with lower compliance will be consistently excluded from analyses involving measures of physical activity with accelerometers until compliance is increased to acceptable levels.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-03312008-152504 |
| Date | 24 June 2008 |
| Creators | Gemmill, Erin Louise |
| Contributors | Kathleen McTigue, Ravi Sharma, Constance Mols Bayles, William Satariano, John Wilbur Wilson |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-03312008-152504/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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