Validation of a hip-worn accelerometer in measuring sleep time in children

Abstract

This study compared measures of sleep from an accelerometer worn on the hip to measures obtained from an accelerometer worn on the wrist, the gold standard measure of sleep behavior in community research. The accelerometer worn on the hip provides a measure of total sleep time in 10- to 11-year-old children comparable to the wrist-worn unit. We provide an alternate method to ascertain bedtime and final wake time when diary data are missing. A hip-worn accelerometer may provide a cost-effective means of gathering physical activity and sleep data simultaneously in large samples of children with or without an accompanying sleep diary.

Figure 1

Participants enrolled in study.

Figure 2. Total Sleep Time (TST) from wrist-worn MML unit vs. hip-worn GT1M unit among active and quiet sleepers on Night 2

Correlations between GT1M and MML estimates of TST in quiet (n = 10) and active (n = 12) sleepers, with best fit regression lines.