Defining continuous walking events in free-living environments : mind the gap

Gbadamosi, AR ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7418-3899, Griffiths, BN, Clarke-Cornwell, AM ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9510-7676 and Granat, MH ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0722-2760 2022, 'Defining continuous walking events in free-living environments : mind the gap' , Sensors, 22 (5) , p. 1720.

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Abstract

In free-living environments, continuous walking can be challenging to achieve without encountering interruptions, making it difficult to define a continuous walking event. While limited research has been conducted to define a continuous walking event that accounts for interruptions, no method has considered the intensity change caused by these interruptions, which is crucial for achieving the associated health outcomes. A sample of 24 staff members at the University of Salford were recruited. The participants wore an accelerometer-based device (activPAL™) for seven days continuously and completed an activity diary, to explore a novel methodological approach of combining short interruptions of time between walking events based on an average walking cadence. The definition of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) used was a minimum walking cadence of either 76, 100, or 109 steps/min. The average daily time spent in MVPA increased from 75.2 ± 32.6 min to 86.5 ± 37.4 min using the 76 steps/min, 48.3 ± 29.5 min to 53.0 ± 33.3 min using the 100 steps/min threshold, and 31.4 ± 20.5 min to 33.9 ± 22.6 min using the 109 steps/min threshold; the difference before grouping and after grouping was statistically significant (p < 0.001). This novel method will enable future analyses of the associations between continuous walking and health-related outcomes.

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