Calibrating physical activity intensity for hip-worn accelerometry in women age 60 to 91 years: The Women's Health Initiative OPACH Calibration Study

OBJECTIVE: We conducted a laboratory-based calibration study to determine relevant cutpoints for a hip-worn accelerometer among women ≥ 60 years, considering both type and filtering of counts. METHODS: Two hundred women wore an ActiGraph GT3X + accelerometer on their hip while performing eight laboratory-based activities. Oxygen uptake was measured using an Oxycon portable calorimeter. Accelerometer data were analyzed in 15-second epochs for both normal and low frequency extension (LFE) filters. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were used to calculate cutpoints for sedentary, light (low and high), and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) using the vertical axis and vector magnitude (VM) counts. RESULTS: Mean age was 75.5 years (standard deviation 7.7). The Spearman correlation between oxygen uptake and accelerometry ranged from 0.77 to 0.85 for the normal and LFE filters and for both the vertical axis and VM. The area under the ROC curve was generally higher for VM compared to the vertical axis, and higher for cutpoints distinguishing MVPA compared to sedentary and light low activities. The VM better discriminated sedentary from light low activities compared to the vertical axis. The area under the ROC curves were better for the LFE filter compared to the normal filter for the vertical axis counts, but no meaningful differences were found by filter type for VM counts. CONCLUSION: The cutpoints derived for this study among women ≥ 60 years can be applied to ongoing epidemiologic studies to define a range of physical activity intensities.