Abstract
Introduction: Despite the known advantages of objective physical activity monitors (e.g., accelerometers), these devices have high rates of non-wear, which leads to missing data. Objective activity monitors are also unable to capture valuable contextual information about behavior. Adolescents recruited into physical activity surveillance and intervention studies will increasingly have smartphones, which are miniature computers with built-in motion sensors.Methods: This paper describes the design and development of a smartphone application (“app”) called Mobile Teen that combines objective and self-report assessment strategies through (1) sensor-informed context-sensitive ecological momentary assessment (CS-EMA) and (2) sensor-assisted end-of-day recall.Results: The Mobile Teen app uses the mobile phone’s built-in motion sensor to automatically detect likely bouts of phone non-wear, sedentary behavior, and physical activity. The app then uses transitions between these inferred states to trigger CS-EMA self-report surveys measuring the type, purpose, and context of activity in real-time. The end of the day recall component of the Mobile Teen app allows users to interactively review and label their own physical activity data each evening using visual cues from automatically detected major activity transitions from the phone’s built-in motion sensors. Major activity transitions are identified by the app, which cues the user to label that “chunk,” or period, of time using activity categories.Conclusion: Sensor-driven CS-EMA and end-of-day recall smartphone apps can be used to augment physical activity data collected by objective activity monitors, filling in gaps during non-wear bouts and providing additional real-time data on environmental, social, and emotional correlates of behavior. Smartphone apps such as these have potential for affordable deployment in large-scale epidemiological and intervention studies.
Highlights
Despite the known advantages of objective physical activity monitors, these devices have high rates of non-wear, which leads to missing data
This paper describes the design and development of a smartphone application (“app”) called Mobile Teen that combines objective and self-report assessment strategies through [1] sensor-informed context-sensitive ecological momentary assessment (CS-EMA) and [2] sensor-assisted end-of-day recall
Sensor-driven CS-EMA and end-of-day recall smartphone apps can be used to augment physical activity data collected by objective activity monitors, filling in gaps during non-wear bouts and providing additional real-time data on environmental, social, and emotional correlates of behavior
Summary
Despite the known advantages of objective physical activity monitors (e.g., accelerometers), these devices have high rates of non-wear, which leads to missing data. Concern over the validity of retrospective self-report due to recall errors and biases, especially for youth [1,2,3], has led to an increase in the use of “objective” measures of physical activity and sedentary behavior, such as accelerometer-based activity monitors, heart rate monitors, and global positioning system (GPS) devices. A number of studies have found differences in physical activity levels and patterns when comparing self-report and objective (e.g., accelerometers and GPS) assessment methods [4,5,6]. Objective activity monitors are being deployed in large-scale surveillance studies with adolescents [7, 8] and offer a promising opportunity to obtain more accurate assessment of physical activity and sedentary behavior in this age group
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