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Concordance Between Accelerometer-Measured and Self-Reported Physical Activity and Sedentary Time in Adults with Autism

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Abstract

This study examined the concordance between accelerometry-measured and self-reported physical activity (PA) and sedentary time in adults with autism. Twenty-four participants wore an ActiGraph GT3X + accelerometer for seven consecutive days and completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) on the last day of their study participation. Bland-Altman plots assessed the magnitude of agreement between the two measures. Nearly 80% of the participants accumulated the recommended ≥ 150 min of moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA)/week, but were also sedentary for over nine hours/day according to accelerometry data. Findings showed that adults with autism tended to overreport MVPA (b = 1.606, p < 0.01) and underreport sedentary time (b = 1.161, p = 0.03) via the IPAQ-SF, as compared to objective measurements.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the Indiana University Collaborative Research Grants Program and the ACSM Foundation Doctoral Student Research Grant from the American College of Sports Medicine Foundation (#19-01155). The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Human Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth, MN, Duluth, USA

    Daehyoung Lee

  2. Department of Kinesiology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Georgia C. Frey & Donetta J. Cothran

  3. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Jaroslaw Harezlak

  4. Department of Informatics, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Patrick C. Shih

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  1. Daehyoung Lee
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  2. Georgia C. Frey
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  3. Donetta J. Cothran
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  4. Jaroslaw Harezlak
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  5. Patrick C. Shih
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection and analysis were primarily performed by Daehyoung Lee, Georgia C. Frey, and Jaroslaw Harezlak. All authors substantially contributed to the manuscript writing and interpretation of data. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Lee, D., Frey, G.C., Cothran, D.J. et al. Concordance Between Accelerometer-Measured and Self-Reported Physical Activity and Sedentary Time in Adults with Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 54, 1517–1526 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05862-y

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