193 Habitual physical activity evaluation in CF children: accelerometry feasibility and comparison with questionnaires

Abstract

Introduction: Physical activity is beneficial for cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. This induces to stimulate their habitual physical activity (HAP) from childhood. Thus, for HAP evaluation, we need methods that are simple, reliable, objective and well accepted by the patients. Accelerometry is one of the possibilities for evaluating HAP. We studied its feasibility, acceptability and correlation with other HAP evaluation methods in a population of paediatric CF patients. Methods: 34 CF patients, aged between 9 and 18 years, were proposed to wear accelerometers. The reasons for not wearing the accelerometer were evaluated. A correlation was measured between the data produced by accelerometry, the answers to HAES and Veerschuur questionnaires, and evaluations by medical staff. Results: – 14 children out of 34 (41%) did not wear the accelerometer, 5 of them simply refused it; 6 children (17%) have worn the accelerometer less than 5 days. Finally, 14 recordings were interpretable, i.e. 41% of the 34 children to whom the measurement was proposed. – The answers to the questionnaires appeared not to be correlated to the accelerometry data. But there was a good correlation of 62.1% (p = 0.017) between the data obtained by accelerometry and the medical evaluation. Conclusion: The feasibility of the HAP evaluation by accelerometry in a pediatric CF population is only around 40%. Therefore it cannot be used in every-day clinical practice. However, in clinical trials, the objective evaluation by accelerometry should be preferred because of the discrepancies observed with answers to standardized questionnaires on physical activity.