Accelerometer use in young people with Down syndrome: A preliminary cross-validation and reliability study

Abstract

Background Inadequate physical activity is a problem for people with Down syndrome and objective monitoring using accelerometers may be inaccurate in this population. Method This was a cross-validation and reliability study comparing two triaxial accelerometers (the SenseWear and RT3) to a criterion measure (the OxyCon Mobile) in 10 young people (M age = 20 ± 2) with Down syndrome. A ROC curve analysis was conducted to determine intensity thresholds from RT3 activity counts. Results During self-selected pace walking, the accelerometers overestimated energy expenditure and had large limits of agreement (SenseWear: −0.5–3.6 METs; RT3: −0.2–2.7 METs). At this pace, SenseWear armband step counts..