Pooling of childrens physical activity data
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bath
Department Name: Department for Health
Abstract
This research will identify the most impoprtant factors that shape childrens physical activity patterns. These factors might include gender, ethnicity, climate, family actitiy habits, friends, brothers and sisters, the environment in which they live, and perceptions of neighbourhood safety. The project will also clarify just how active childreen need to be to avoid putting on weight and also avoid diabetes and other health risk factors at an early age.
Technical Summary
The importance of physical activity during childhood is now accepted, as obesity rates escalate and the onset of chronic disease appears at earlier stages of the lifecourse. Motion sensors, especially accelerometers, produce more precise data on levels (amounts), patterns (daily, weekly, seasonal) and dimensions (frequency, intensity, duration) of physical activity behaviour. Accelerometers are increasingly being used in larger studies of children and a high level of collaboration between research groups has resulted in comparable measurement and data reduction protocols being applied in such studies. We estimate that around 28,000 measurements of 3-7 days duration have now been made on children using identical accelerometers and similar protocols. The data have been collected in a range of countries, across diverse cultures and including both the childhood and adolescent periods.
The aim of this project is to pool these data to provide new opportunities for analysis. This will provide greatly increased analytical power for more in depth sub-group analyses e.g. minorities, and greater cultural diversity to conduct new analyses of a broader range of variables including social, cultural, ethnic and geographical dimensions.
Data sets have been identified through personal contacts and scrutiny of published literature. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal datasets are available. Research questions include:
1. What are the determinants of physical activity by age, gender, social, cultural, ethnic and geographical groups?
2. What are the dose-response relationships between physical activity and a range of health outcomes (obesity, CVD risk, etc.) by age, gender, social, cultural, ethnic and geographical groups?
The resource will be valuable to researchers, policy makers, health practivioners and students who will have access to the data for future analyses.
The aim of this project is to pool these data to provide new opportunities for analysis. This will provide greatly increased analytical power for more in depth sub-group analyses e.g. minorities, and greater cultural diversity to conduct new analyses of a broader range of variables including social, cultural, ethnic and geographical dimensions.
Data sets have been identified through personal contacts and scrutiny of published literature. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal datasets are available. Research questions include:
1. What are the determinants of physical activity by age, gender, social, cultural, ethnic and geographical groups?
2. What are the dose-response relationships between physical activity and a range of health outcomes (obesity, CVD risk, etc.) by age, gender, social, cultural, ethnic and geographical groups?
The resource will be valuable to researchers, policy makers, health practivioners and students who will have access to the data for future analyses.
Organisations
- University of Bath, United Kingdom (Lead Research Organisation)
- Federal University of Pelotas (Collaboration)
- The University of Iowa, United States (Collaboration)
- University of Canberra (Collaboration)
- University of Bristol, United Kingdom (Collaboration)
- University of South Carolina, United States (Collaboration)
- Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute, Switzerland (Collaboration)
- Deakin University (Collaboration)
- University of Southern Denmark, Denmark (Collaboration)
- University of Ghent, Belgium (Collaboration)
- University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom (Collaboration)
- Addenbrooke's Hospital (Collaboration)
Publications

Atkin AJ
(2017)
Harmonising data on the correlates of physical activity and sedentary behaviour in young people: Methods and lessons learnt from the international Children's Accelerometry database (ICAD).
in The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity

Atkin AJ
(2014)
Prevalence and correlates of screen time in youth: an international perspective.
in American journal of preventive medicine

Brazendale K
(2016)
Equating accelerometer estimates among youth: The Rosetta Stone 2.
in Journal of science and medicine in sport

Chaput JP
(2012)
Time spent sedentary and active and cardiometabolic risk factors in children.
in JAMA

Cooper AR
(2015)
Objectively measured physical activity and sedentary time in youth: the International children's accelerometry database (ICAD).
in The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity

Corder K
(2016)
Age-related patterns of vigorous-intensity physical activity in youth: The International Children's Accelerometry Database.
in Preventive medicine reports


Goodman A
(2014)
Daylight saving time as a potential public health intervention: an observational study of evening daylight and objectively-measured physical activity among 23,000 children from 9 countries.
in The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity

Hansen BH
(2018)
Cross-Sectional Associations of Reallocating Time Between Sedentary and Active Behaviours on Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Young People: An International Children's Accelerometry Database (ICAD) Analysis.
in Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)

Harrison F
(2017)
Weather and children's physical activity; how and why do relationships vary between countries?
in The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity
Description | Inclusion in Lancet Series: Hallal PC, Andersen LB, Bull FC, Guthold R, Haskell W, Ekelund U; Lancet Physical Activity Series Working Group. Global physical activity levels: surveillance progress, pitfalls, and prospects. Lancet. 2012;380(9838):258-71 |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Description | A Planning Meeting to Advance Physical Activity Assessment and Reporting for Children with a Chronic Medical Condition or Disability |
Amount | $10,000 (CAD) |
Organisation | McMaster University |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | Canada |
Start | 03/2018 |
End | 04/2018 |
Description | Norwegian Research Council: Operating Grant |
Amount | kr 25,000,000 (NOK) |
Organisation | Research Council of Norway |
Sector | Public |
Country | Norway |
Start | 09/2016 |
End | 08/2021 |
Title | Data repository |
Description | Cambridge University has archived the pooled data from this grant and releases the data to approved users |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | There has been 25 external application approved and subsequent data released |
URL | http://www.mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk/research/studies/icad |
Description | Partner on the ICAD project |
Organisation | Addenbrooke's Hospital |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Hospitals |
PI Contribution | There are frequent communications made to all partners. This is made in an effort to keep them updated on progress and also to ask their input on decisions and manuscripts. All partners are encouraged to access and publish from the database. |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution of data to the archive, accessing the data for publishing purposes and descion making in terms of the development and maintenance of the archive |
Impact | Outputs include the production of the database and the publications and presentations (in which they are acknowledged or listed under a group authorship) |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Partner on the ICAD project |
Organisation | Deakin University |
Department | School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences Deakin |
Country | Australia |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | There are frequent communications made to all partners. This is made in an effort to keep them updated on progress and also to ask their input on decisions and manuscripts. All partners are encouraged to access and publish from the database. |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution of data to the archive, accessing the data for publishing purposes and descion making in terms of the development and maintenance of the archive |
Impact | Outputs include the production of the database and the publications and presentations (in which they are acknowledged or listed under a group authorship) |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Partner on the ICAD project |
Organisation | Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel) |
Country | Brazil |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | There are frequent communications made to all partners. This is made in an effort to keep them updated on progress and also to ask their input on decisions and manuscripts. All partners are encouraged to access and publish from the database. |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution of data to the archive, accessing the data for publishing purposes and descion making in terms of the development and maintenance of the archive |
Impact | Outputs include the production of the database and the publications and presentations (in which they are acknowledged or listed under a group authorship) |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Partner on the ICAD project |
Organisation | Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | There are frequent communications made to all partners. This is made in an effort to keep them updated on progress and also to ask their input on decisions and manuscripts. All partners are encouraged to access and publish from the database. |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution of data to the archive, accessing the data for publishing purposes and descion making in terms of the development and maintenance of the archive |
Impact | Outputs include the production of the database and the publications and presentations (in which they are acknowledged or listed under a group authorship) |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Partner on the ICAD project |
Organisation | University of Bristol |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | There are frequent communications made to all partners. This is made in an effort to keep them updated on progress and also to ask their input on decisions and manuscripts. All partners are encouraged to access and publish from the database. |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution of data to the archive, accessing the data for publishing purposes and descion making in terms of the development and maintenance of the archive |
Impact | Outputs include the production of the database and the publications and presentations (in which they are acknowledged or listed under a group authorship) |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Partner on the ICAD project |
Organisation | University of Canberra |
Country | Australia |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | There are frequent communications made to all partners. This is made in an effort to keep them updated on progress and also to ask their input on decisions and manuscripts. All partners are encouraged to access and publish from the database. |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution of data to the archive, accessing the data for publishing purposes and descion making in terms of the development and maintenance of the archive |
Impact | Outputs include the production of the database and the publications and presentations (in which they are acknowledged or listed under a group authorship) |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Partner on the ICAD project |
Organisation | University of Ghent |
Department | Department of Movement and Sports Sciences |
Country | Belgium |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | There are frequent communications made to all partners. This is made in an effort to keep them updated on progress and also to ask their input on decisions and manuscripts. All partners are encouraged to access and publish from the database. |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution of data to the archive, accessing the data for publishing purposes and descion making in terms of the development and maintenance of the archive |
Impact | Outputs include the production of the database and the publications and presentations (in which they are acknowledged or listed under a group authorship) |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Partner on the ICAD project |
Organisation | University of Iowa |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | There are frequent communications made to all partners. This is made in an effort to keep them updated on progress and also to ask their input on decisions and manuscripts. All partners are encouraged to access and publish from the database. |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution of data to the archive, accessing the data for publishing purposes and descion making in terms of the development and maintenance of the archive |
Impact | Outputs include the production of the database and the publications and presentations (in which they are acknowledged or listed under a group authorship) |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Partner on the ICAD project |
Organisation | University of South Carolina |
Department | Arnold School of Public Health |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | There are frequent communications made to all partners. This is made in an effort to keep them updated on progress and also to ask their input on decisions and manuscripts. All partners are encouraged to access and publish from the database. |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution of data to the archive, accessing the data for publishing purposes and descion making in terms of the development and maintenance of the archive |
Impact | Outputs include the production of the database and the publications and presentations (in which they are acknowledged or listed under a group authorship) |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Partner on the ICAD project |
Organisation | University of Southern Denmark |
Country | Denmark |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | There are frequent communications made to all partners. This is made in an effort to keep them updated on progress and also to ask their input on decisions and manuscripts. All partners are encouraged to access and publish from the database. |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution of data to the archive, accessing the data for publishing purposes and descion making in terms of the development and maintenance of the archive |
Impact | Outputs include the production of the database and the publications and presentations (in which they are acknowledged or listed under a group authorship) |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Partner on the ICAD project |
Organisation | University of Strathclyde |
Department | Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences (HaSS) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | There are frequent communications made to all partners. This is made in an effort to keep them updated on progress and also to ask their input on decisions and manuscripts. All partners are encouraged to access and publish from the database. |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution of data to the archive, accessing the data for publishing purposes and descion making in terms of the development and maintenance of the archive |
Impact | Outputs include the production of the database and the publications and presentations (in which they are acknowledged or listed under a group authorship) |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Abstract accepted for the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Conference, Victoria Canada, June 7-10 2017) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | An external applicant applied to use the ICAD data. They were granted access, data transferred and analysed the data. This analyses will be presented at the conference. Victoria Canada, June 7-10 2017. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Conference Presentation (International Medical Geography Symposium) - Vancouver, Canada |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | This was a conference presentation by a post-doctoral researcher using data from the ICAD. The audience was primarily academics. post doctoral students and to a lesser extent practitioners. The title of the presentation was: Weather and children's physical activity; how and why do relationships vary between countries |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://www.sfu.ca/imgs2015/ |
Description | Conference Presentation, American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Orlando Florida. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | A post doctoral student presented data from the International Children's Accelerometry Database (ICAD) at a high profile conference. Attendees at the conference would be primarily post graduate students, academics/researchers and to a slightly lesser extent practitioners. Abstract title: Reallocating Time from Sedentary to Active Behaviors and its association with Cardio-metabolic Risk in Youth |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | https://www.acsm.org/about-acsm/media-room/news-releases/2014/05/07/2014-acsm-annual-meeting-may-27-... |
Description | Conference Presentation, American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Orlando Florida. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | A post doctoral student presented data from the International Children's Accelerometry Database (ICAD) at a high profile conference. Attendees at the conference would be primarily post graduate students, academics/researchers and to a slightly lesser extent practitioners. Title of the presentation: Birth weight and cardio-metabolic risk factors in youth- does physical activity matter? |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://www.acsm.org/attend-a-meeting/annual-meeting |
Description | Conference Presentation, International Congress on Physical Actvity and Public Health (Bankok, Thailand, November 2016) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A post doctoral student presented data from the International Children's Accelerometry Database (ICAD) at a high profile conference. Attendees at the conference will be primarily post graduate students, academics/researchers and to a slightly lesser extent practitioners. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://www.ispah2016.org/ |
Description | Conference Presentation, UKCRC, Public Health Research Centres of Excellence Conference (Edinburgh, Scotland) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | A post doctoral student presented data from the International Children's Accelerometry Database (ICAD) at a high profile conference. Attendees at the conference would be primarily post graduate students, academics/researchers and to a slightly lesser extent practitioners. Title of presentation: Weather and children's physical activity; how and why do relationships vary between countries? |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://ukcrc15.efconference.co.uk/ |
Description | Conference presentation: 6th International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health (ICPAPH), Bangkok, Thailand, 16-19 Nov 2016. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | An external applicant applied to use the ICAD data. They were granted access, data transferred and analysed the data. This analyses will be presented at the conference: 6th International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health (ICPAPH), Bangkok, Thailand, 16-19 Nov 2016. Conference title: The magnitude of associations between accumulated and continuous time spent in moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity and cardiometabolic risk factors in children and adolescents, |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | One presentation at the 2014 International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health (ICPAPH) in Rio, Brazil |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
Results and Impact | Talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards There was more interest in external applications to use the pooled resource after the talk |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
Description | Pooling data for the grant was used in the high impact Lancet Physical Activity Series |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | The Lancet is the most influential medical journal in the world; it is cited more than any other. Not only that, but they announced it with a press conference and a seminar led by the authors in London just days before the opening of the Olympic games. Thus, the launch of the special issue was carefully planned for maximum impact. The immediate impact of the special issue was unprecedented for the physical activity field. The scope of the coverage was difficult to measure because it was worldwide. Likely has raised the profile of physical inactivity as a leading risk factor for NCDs. However. difficult to ascertain direct impact |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
URL | http://www.thelancet.com/series/physical-activity |
Description | Presentation at the: Annual Meeting, American Public Health Association, Denver, Colorado. 2016 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | An external applicant applied to use the ICAD data. They were granted access, data transferred and analysed the data. This analyses will be presented at the conference: American Public Health Association, Denver, Colorado. 2016 Presentation title: Moore, JB, Beets, MW, Brazendale, K, Fleischer, NL, Blair, SN, Pate, RR. Impact of Accelerometer Cutpoints on the Association of Vigorous Physical Activity with Cardiometabolic Biomarkers in Youth. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Symposium (4 presentation) at the International Society for Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA) Edinburgh, Sctoland June 2015 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The symposium consisted of 4 presentations on the ICAD. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://www.isbnpa2015.org/ |
Description | Symposium on the grant at the 2010 Toronto International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health (ICPAPH) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
Results and Impact | To promote the pooled resource to other academics with the intent to produce more outputs. There was an increase in proposals to use the data |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
Description | Two Conference presentations at the International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health (ICPAPH) 2012 (Sydney, Australia) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
Results and Impact | The presentation sparked questions and discussion afterwards. There was an increase in external interest in the pooled resource after the presentation |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
Description | Using existing data for a better future Opportunities and challenges of harmonising activity data |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Opportunities and challenges of harmonising activity data Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Thursday 18 October 2018 Retrospective harmonisation enables researchers to bring together activity data acquired using diverse methods, settings or populations for co-analysis. Combining data in this way can provide greater heterogeneity, increased statistical power to investigate weak or complex associations, and extended scientific impact relative to individual study analyses. This meeting provided the opportunity to: introduce the research community to the value of, and need for, activity data harmonisation describe harmonisation methods previously used and those under development discuss harmonisation of objective measures, self-report and travel surveys strengthen understanding of the opportunities and challenges through sharing best practice enable networking between those interested in data harmonisation explore future opportunities. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://www.mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk/ispahdata18/ |