PURPOSE: Use data from the International Children’s Accelerometry Database to explore how different methods of operationalizing the youth physical activity (PA) guidelines influence: (i) the proportion of youth deemed compliant with the guidelines, and (ii) associations between guideline compliance and health indicators. METHODS: Accelerometer data for 21,612 youth (5-18y, 62.4% female) was used to explore PA guideline compliance defined by four operationalization METHODS: daily method (DM; ≥60 minutes moderate-vigorous PA [MVPA] on every day of the measurement period), average method (AM; average of ≥60 minutes MVPA per day over the measurement period), AM5 (compliance with AM and ≥5 minutes of vigorous PA [VPA] on ≥3 days), AM15 (compliance with AM and ≥15 minutes VPA on ≥3 days). Relationships between guideline compliance and health indicators (e.g., BMI z-score, cholesterol levels, blood pressure) were examined for all operationalization methods. Descriptive statistics and McNemar’s tests were used to compare compliance estimates for the four methods. Multivariate regression models were used to test associations between compliance and health indicators. RESULTS: Operationalization method influenced estimates of compliance with the youth PA guidelines: 5.3% using DM, 29.9% using AM, 29.4% using AM5, 23.7% using AM15. Associations between guideline compliance and health indicators were similar for the AM, AM5 and AM15 methods, for example, BMI z-score: AM compliance (coefficient -0.28, 95% CI: -0.33,-0.23), AM5 compliance (coefficient -0.28, 95% CI: -0.33,-0.23), AM15 compliance (coefficient -0.30, 95% CI: -0.35,-0.25). Compliance with the DM method demonstrated similar or weaker associations with health indicators, potentially due to a small number of participants that complied with DM and also had health indicator data (n=250-1,127). CONCLUSION: Operationalization method influences estimates of the proportion of youth meeting the PA guidelines. This finding adds to the PA data processing decisions that researchers need to consider. While operationalization method appears to have a minor influence on associations between guideline compliance and health indicators, further research with a larger sample of DM-compliant participants with health data is needed to confirm this finding.
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