A Novel Smartphone Accelerometer Application for Low-Intensity Activity and Energy Expenditure Estimations in Overweight and Obese Adults

Abstract

Physical inactivity and sedentary behaviors are on the rise worldwide and contribute to the current overweight and obesity scourge. The loss of healthy life style benchmarks and the lack of the need to move make it necessary to provide feedback about physical and sedentary activities in order to promote active ways of life. The aim of this study was to develop a specific function adapted to overweight and obese people to identify four physical activity (PA) categories and to estimate the associated total energy expenditure (TEE). This function used accelerometry data collected from a smartphone to evaluate activity intensity and length, and TEE. The performance of the proposed function was estimated according to two references (Armband® and FitmatePro®) under controlled conditions (CC) for a 1.5-h scenario, and to the Armband® device in free-living conditions (FLC) over a 12-h monitoring period. The experiments were carried out with overweight and obese volunteers: 13 in CC and 27 in FLC. The evaluation differences in time spent in each category were lower than 7% in CC and 6% in FLC, in comparison to the Armband® and FitmatePro® references. The TEE mean gap in absolute value between the function and the two references was 9.3% and 11.5% in CC, and 8.5% according to Armband® in FLC.

eMouveRecherche: the first scientific application to promote light-intensity activity for the prevention of chronic diseases

“…Because of the work done beforehand [15,16], the results of the present study are expected to be accurate and able to detect small differences in behavior. The results showed different activity profiles between the two weight statuses recorded for one day of spontaneous activity.…”

“…The eMouveRecherche application collects the smartphone accelerometry data at 6 Hz. The raw accelerometry data were then sent via Internet to the ActivCollector Web platform (https:// activcollector.clermont.inra.fr) where they were immediately compiled and analyzed according to the algorithms designed in [15,16]. The algorithms were validated under controlled and free-living conditions against reference methods (Armband and Fitmate Pro).…”

“…They were specifically designed to estimate, on the one hand, the daily-living activities of normal weight adults and, on the other, the activities of overweight/obese adults in free-living conditions. The algorithms were validated against reference methods commonly used in energy metabolism and recently published [15,16].…”

Comparison of Active and Sedentary Bout Lengths in Normal and Overweight Adults using eMouverecherche

“…The raw accelerometry data were then sent via Internet to the Activ Collector Web platform (https://activcollector.clermont.inra. fr) where they were immediately compiled and analyzed according to the validated algorithms [15,16]. The clinical trial and the accelerometry data management have already been described in detail [16].…”

“…In a previous work, we developed the eMouveRecherche application to accurately quantify four types of behavior: Immobility, light-, moderate-and vigorous-intensity activity from accelerometry data collected by smartphones. Specific algorithms to quantify time spent in these four categories were developed in two distinct populations and tested in controlled and free-living conditions [15,16]. The algorithms were scientifically validated with less than 5% of error in absolute value against the reference method (indirect calorimetry) or research device (Armband®).…”