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Motor competence is important for lifelong physical activity (PA). The current study aimed to examine associations between PA and motor competence. In total, 43 children aged 7-12 years with intellectual disabilities and/or autism spectrum disorder completed anthropometric measures, the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-2, and wore a wrist accelerometer to capture total PA, moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), average acceleration, and intensity gradient. No significant associations were found between PA outcomes and motor competence. Motor competence performance was commonly 'below average' or 'average'. The weakest subtests were upper limb coordination and strength. The strongest subtest was running speed and agility. Total weekly MVPA was 336.1 ± 150.3 min, higher than UK recommendations of 120-180 per week for disabled children and young people. Larger scale studies are needed to better understand the relationship between PA and motor competence. Future research should also consider the influence of environmental factors on PA in this group., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

The ability to compare published group-level estimates of objectively measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) across studies continues to increase in difficulty. The objective of this study was to develop conversion equations and demonstrate their utility to compare estimates of MVPA derived from the wrist and hip. Three studies of youth (N = 232, 9-12yrs, 50% boys) concurrently wore a hip-worn ActiGraph and a wrist-worn GENEActiv for 7-days. ActiGraph hip count data were reduced using four established cutpoints. Wrist accelerations were reduced using the Hildebrand MVPA 200 mg threshold. Conversion equations were developed on a randomly selected subsample of 132 youth. Equations were cross-validated and absolute error, absolute percent error, and modified Bland-Altman plots were evaluated for conversion accuracy. Across equations R 2 adj was 0.51-0.56 with individual-level absolute error in minutes ranging from 7 (wrist-to-hip Puyau) to 14.5 minutes (wrist-to-hip Freedson 3MET) and absolute percent differences ranging from 13.9%-24.5%. Group-level cross-validation to convert hip-to-wrist MVPA resulted in average absolute percent errors ranging from 3.1%-4.9%. Conversion of wrist-to-hip MVPA resulted in average absolute percent errors ranging from 3.0%-10.0%. We recommend the use of these equations to compare published estimates of MVPA between the wear-site cut-point combinations presented.

Purpose: This study aimed to provide a means for calibrating raw acceleration data from wrist-worn accelerometers in relation to past estimates of children's moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) from a range of cut points applied to hip-worn ActiGraph data., Methods: This is a secondary analysis of three studies with concurrent 7-d accelerometer wear at the wrist (GENEActiv) and hip (ActiGraph) in 238 children age 9-12 yr. The time spent above acceleration (ENMO) thresholds of 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, and 400 mg from wrist acceleration data (≤5-s epoch) was calculated for comparison with MVPA estimated from widely used children's hip-worn ActiGraph MVPA cut points (Freedson/Trost, 1100 counts per minute; Pate, 1680 counts per minute; Evenson, 2296 counts per minute; Puyau, 3200 counts per minute) with epochs of ≤5, 15, and 60 s., Results: The optimal ENMO thresholds for alignment with MVPA estimates from ActiGraph cut points determined from 70% of the sample and cross validated with the remaining 30% were as follows: Freedson/Trost = ENMO 150+ mg, irrespective of ActiGraph epoch (intraclass correlation [ICC] ≥ 0.65); Pate = ENMO 200+ mg, irrespective of ActiGraph epoch (ICC ≥ 0.67); Evenson = ENMO 250+ mg for ≤5- and 15-s epochs (ICC ≥ 0.69) and ENMO 300+ mg for 60-s epochs (ICC = 0.73); Puyau = ENMO 300+ mg for ≤5-s epochs (ICC = 0.73), ENMO 350+ mg for 15-s epochs (ICC = 0.73), and ENMO 400+ mg for 60-s epochs (ICC = 0.65). Agreement was robust with cross-validation ICC = 0.62-0.71 and means within ∣7.8∣% ± 4.9% of MVPA estimates from ActiGraph cut points, except Puyau 60-s epochs (ICC = 0.42)., Conclusion: Incremental ENMO thresholds enable children's acceleration data measured at the wrist to be simply and directly compared, at a group level, with past estimates of MVPA from hip-worn ActiGraphs across a range of cut points.

The aim of this study was to assess the physical activity (PA) patterns of youth with intellectual disabilities (ID). PA was monitored for 7 days in 70 participants, 5-15 years old, using accelerometers. There were 32 participants included in the final analysis. Habitual PA and the number of continuous bouts accrued for a range of bout lengths (5-600 s) for light (LPA), moderate (MPA), and vigorous (VPA) PA were calculated. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to assess differences in the number of continuous bouts by sex, age, and ID group and between week and weekend days. Participants exhibited short sporadic bursts of activity. The number of continuous bouts decreased as the intensity and duration increased. Few differences in PA patterns were reported by sex, ID group, and age group and between week and weekend days, possibly due to the generally low PA levels in this population.