Details

Purpose: Increasing physical activity in the urban environment is becoming more common. Accurate device-based measures of physical activity and its context is important for researchers. This symposium will provide researchers with an overview of how to measure physical activity in its context. The process of collecting GPS and accelerometer data and learning how to process it using HABITUS and PALMSplus for R will be explained. 

Rationale: The health benefits associated with physical activity in young people are well documented. However, most young people are not sufficiently active. The urban environment offers many opportunities to be active but assessing the context in which physical activity occurs remains a challenge. Recent developments integrating accelerometer and GPS data make it easier to create context specific device-based measures of physical activity.

Objectives: The symposium has four aims: 1) to explain basic concepts of physical activity in the urban environment, 2) to describe how accelerometer and GPS are used to measure key aspects of physical activity: where (space), when (time) and how much (type and intensity), 3) to present tools (HABITUS and PALMSplus) that can aggregate and analyze these data to determine where, when, and how much physical activity occurs, and finally, 4) to showcase objectives 1­–3 with a study examining the physical activity occurring in the urban environment while adolescents commute to school.

Summary: Firstly, the chair of the symposium will introduce the topic and basic concepts of working with device-based measures of physical activity in the urban environment (objective 1). The first speaker will explain how to collect and merge accelerometer and GPS data to measure physical activity occurring in urban environments (objective 2). Then, the second speaker will present how to analyze the merged accelerometer and GPS data using the software PALMSplus (objective 3). The last presenter will exemplify the first three objectives by presenting results obtained from a study focuses on commuting to/from school (objective 4). Finally, there will be a general discussion on the advantages and challenges of using device-based measures of physical activity in its urban context.

Format:

1)     Welcoming and brief introduction (10 minutes): Dr. Palma Chillón

2)     First presenter (15 minutes): Prof. Jasper Schipperijn

3)     Second presenter (15 minutes): Dr. Tom Stewart

4)     Third presenter (15 minutes): PhD student Pablo Campos-Garzón

5)     General discussion between presenters and delegates (20 minutes): Dr. Palma Chillón

6)     Closing and Brief conclusions (5 minutes): Dr. Palma Chillón

Speaker