Abstract
Compliance with physical activity (PA) recommendations was assessed using objective PA monitoring of ambulatory activity, in two healthy groups of individuals with active and sedentary occupations. The study showed generally low compliance with the guidelines (53% with 10,000 steps a day; 10% with 30 min of moderate activity a day; and 1% with 30 min of moderate activity a day in bouts of at least 10 min (ACSM)). Adherence to guidelines decreased as more rigorous conditions were applied to the PA data. Use of an objective monitor revealed that health enhancing bouts of activity were performed in periods of approximately 1-min duration, which may be due to unavoidable environmental interruptions. These bouts of activity are much shorter than those advocated in the ACSM guidelines, raising questions regarding how actual behaviour, based on objective monitoring, can be reconciled with guidelines based on self-reported PA.
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Acknowledgments
The data used in this article was collected as part of the PhD studies of Dr William Tigbe, funded by Glasgow Caledonian University. The authors would like to thank Royal Mail Group Ltd for allowing access to their staff for recruitment to this study.
Conflict of interest statement
Professor Malcolm Granat is a named co-inventor of the activity monitor and has a directorship of the company PAL Technologies Ltd., Glasgow, UK. Professor Granat had no involvement in either data collection, or in the statistical analysis of the results. There was no financial contribution to this work from PAL Technologies Ltd.
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Chastin, S.F.M., Dall, P.M., Tigbe, W.W. et al. Compliance with physical activity guidelines in a group of UK-based postal workers using an objective monitoring technique. Eur J Appl Physiol 106, 893–899 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-009-1090-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-009-1090-x