Abstract
Developing more accurate assessments of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) is an important public health research priority. Assessing PA and SB is challenging in all segments of the population, but it is especially difficult in children due to cognitive limitations and more sporadic and intermittent activity patterns. Moreover, they are influenced by several factors including temporal-spatial constraints and social conditions. To accurately assess PA and SB, it is essential to clearly define methods for describing all these factors. The goal of this paper is to potentiate advances in the field by proposing a base ontology for characterizing physical activity, sedentary behavior, and the context in which it occurs. The ontology would establish a flexible base language to facilitate standardized descriptions of these behaviors for researchers and public health professionals.
Highlights
Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that regular physical activity (PA) is truly a “medicine” with proven efficacy to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with chronic disease [1]
The use of current and emerging technologies such as GPS and intelligent video processing is expected to be an integral part of this research field and provide richer information
The availability of the OPA ontology defining a common vocabulary for researchers in this area would provide an important tool for information sharing and reuse, increasing the opportunity for advances in the domain
Summary
Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that regular physical activity (PA) is truly a “medicine” with proven efficacy to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with chronic disease [1]. Methods are not available to systematically study the complex interactions that influence PA and sedentary behavior (SB). To advance public health research, it is important to develop more robust methodologies. A number of studies have evaluated PA patterns with objective activity monitors, but few studies have examined contextual variation in PA and sedentary activity [7,8,9]. Recent research efforts have sought to overcome these limitations, and a number of different instruments have been used: daily logs; diaries; questionnaires; direct observation
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