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. 2024 Oct 18;24(20):6705.
doi: 10.3390/s24206705.

Evaluation of the ActiMotus Software to Accurately Classify Postures and Movements in Children Aged 3-14

Charlotte Lund Rasmussen  1   2 , Danica Hendry  1   2 , George Thomas  1   2   3 , Amber Beynon  1   2 , Sarah Michelle Stearne  1   2 , Juliana Zabatiero  1   2 , Paul Davey  4 , Jon Roslyng Larsen  5 , Andrew Lloyd Rohl  2   6   7 , Leon Straker  1   2 , Amity Campbell  1   2
Affiliations

Evaluation of the ActiMotus Software to Accurately Classify Postures and Movements in Children Aged 3-14

Charlotte Lund Rasmussen et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: ActiMotus, a thigh-accelerometer-based software used for the classification of postures and movements (PaMs), has shown high accuracy among adults and school-aged children; however, its accuracy among younger children and potential differences between sexes are unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of ActiMotus to measure PaMs among children between 3 and 14 years and to assess if this was influenced by the sex or age of children.

Method: Forty-eight children attended a structured ~1-hour data collection session at a laboratory. Thigh acceleration was measured using a SENS accelerometer, which was classified into nine PaMs using the ActiMotus software. Human-coded video recordings of the session provided the ground truth.

Results: Based on both F1 scores and balanced accuracy, the highest levels of accuracy were found for lying, sitting, and standing (63.2-88.2%). For walking and running, accuracy measures ranged from 48.0 to 85.8%. The lowest accuracy was observed for classifying stair climbing. We found a higher accuracy for stair climbing among girls compared to boys and for older compared to younger age groups for walking, running, and stair climbing.

Conclusions: ActiMotus could accurately detect lying, sitting, and standing among children. The software could be improved for classifying walking, running, and stair climbing, particularly among younger children.

Keywords: accelerometry; physical activity; sedentary behaviour; validation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Confusion matrix for ActiMotus and video coded postures and movements based on the whole sample (N = 48).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Confusion matrix for ActiMotus and video coded postures and movements stratified by sex.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Confusion matrices for ActiMotus and video coded postures and movements stratified by age group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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