Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Date of Graduation
5-14-2026
Semester of Graduation
Spring
Publish
yes
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science (BS)
Department
Department of Kinesiology
First Advisor
Trent Hargens
Second Advisor
Stephanie Kurti-Luden
Abstract
Consumer wearables and fitness trackers are widely used to track physical activity (PA), including step counts. The Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee has emphasized the need for research comparing PA measurement devices to support the development of step-based recommendations. PURPOSE: To assess agreement between PA metrics measured by two commonly used accelerometers, the ActiGraph (AG) and the ActivPAL (AP) in a sample of college-aged adults. METHODS: A total of 26 college students [18 women, 8 men, aged 18 – 26 years (21 ± 2 years, BMI = 23 ± 3)] wore the AG and AP concurrently for 4 - 7 days . The AG was positioned on the right hip and the AP on the right thigh. Paired sample t-tests, Bland-Altman analyses, mean differences, mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) values, and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were computed for steps, sedentary time and moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) minutes per day. RESULTS: Step counts were lower with AG (9581 ± 2649) compared to AP (10305 ± 2689, P < 0.001), with a mean difference of 724, MAPE of 9.3%, and an ICC of 0.9. Sedentary minutes per day were higher with AG (636 ± 80) compared to AP (572 ± 57, P = 0.009), with a mean difference of 64, a MAPE of 12%, and an ICC of 0.3. MVPA was higher with AG (60 ± 21) compared to AP (57 ± 23, P < 0.001), with a mean difference of 4, a MAPE of 18%, and an ICC of 0.8. Bland-Altman results for steps (P < 0.001) and sedentary time (P < 0.001) were significant, whereas Bland-Altman for MVPA was not (P = 0.2). CONCLUSION: The AG and AP showed strong agreement for step counts, but agreement was weaker for sedentary time and MVPA. The AG consistently overestimated both metrics, potentially due to movement-based misclassification of posture and activity intensity when worn at the hip. The AP, with continuous wear and posture detection, may provide a stronger reference for evaluating these metrics on college students.
