Gemmill, Erin Louise
(2008)
Compliance to an Accelerometer Protocol in Older Adults.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Accelerometers are reliable, valid, and versatile tools for measuring physical activity for research studies. However, compliance to protocols of accelerometer use by participants of research studies is crucial in order to ensure the most accurate measure of their physical activity. It is possible that aging effects on physical and cognitive health will limit the ability of an older adult to be compliant with wearing an accelerometer. Unfortunately, research investigations into the factors that predict compliance to accelerometer protocols in older adults are nonexistent. We used data from the study entitled Environmental Correlates of Physical Activity Among Older Adults: A Healthy Aging Network Research Collaboration to investigate compliance to an accelerometer protocol in a cohort of 201 individuals 65 years of age and older in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. We had two main hypotheses: (a) Compliance generally decreases with age among older adults and (b) the effect of age on compliance will be attenuated when controlling for demographic variables, cognitive and physical functioning, and walking behavior.The results show that 89.90% (n=178) of participants had at least four valid days of accelerometer wear and therefore met the valid person criteria and 50.00% (n=99) of participants had seven valid days of accelerometer wear and therefore met the compliant person criteria based on the accelerometer protocol. The best multivariate logistic regression model to predict being a valid person included IADL (p=0.002) score and a constant (p<.001) while the best multivariate logistic regression model to predict being a compliant person included Modified Guralnik Lower Body Score (p=0.008), White race (p=0.018), and a constant (p=0.036).While we hypothesized that compliance would decrease with advancing age in older adults, this analysis found no significant relationship between age and compliance. The results of this analysis did, however, show that several characteristics were associated with compliance, which supports the idea that compliance to an accelerometer protocol is influenced by certain characteristics among older adults. This research has public health significance because participants with characteristics associated with lower compliance will be consistently excluded from analyses involving measures of physical activity with accelerometers until compliance is increased to acceptable levels.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
24 June 2008 |
| Date Type: |
Completion |
| Defense Date: |
10 January 2008 |
| Approval Date: |
24 June 2008 |
| Submission Date: |
31 March 2008 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
School of Public Health > Epidemiology |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
estimating sample size; physical activity measurement |
| Other ID: |
http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-03312008-152504/, etd-03312008-152504 |
| Date Deposited: |
10 Nov 2011 19:33 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 13:37 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/6670 |
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