Classification of occupations by accelerometer-derived variables for physical behaviour : Health Survey for England 2008

Clarke-Cornwell, AM; Granat, MH; Cook, PA

Abstract

Objective: Leisure time sedentary behaviour (SB) is known to be associated with a number of healthrelated outcomes (HRO); however, for those who are economically active, occupational activity (OA) contributes towards their daily physical activity (PA) and SB. It is known that office-based workers accumulate the majority of their sitting time at work. There is limited research into OA across other occupational categories; therefore, the aim of this study was to classify occupational categories into low, intermediate and high OA, based on accelerometer activity variables.


Methods: Based on methodology from a study in the USA using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (Steeves et al., 2015), accelerometer-derived variables were computed from the Health Survey for England 2008. For each of the 25 sub-major groups of the Standard Occupational Classification 2000, the following variables were derived: total activity counts/day, activity counts/min, proportion of wear-time in SB, light PA, lifestyle PA and moderate-to-vigorous PA. The sum of the ranks of these variables was used to create a summary score for each occupational category: this score was ranked to establish categories with low, intermediate and high OA.

Results: Of the 2356 adults with accelerometer data, 839 were in full-time employment and provided ≥4-days of valid data (≥10 hours wear-time). 'Health professionals' were classified as having lowest OA; 'Skilled agricultural trades' were classified as having highest OA (Table 1). Employees in high OA categories were more likely to be older and male compared to those in low OA categories.


Conclusions: Objectively measured OA allows for further exploration of OA with HRO.
Steeves, J. A., Tudor-Locke, C., Murphy, R. A., King, G. A., Fitzhugh, E. C., & Harris, T. B. (2015). Classification of occupational activity categories using accelerometry: NHANES 2003-2004. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 12(1), 89.

Citation

Clarke-Cornwell, A., Granat, M., & Cook, P. (2017, June). Classification of occupations by accelerometer-derived variables for physical behaviour : Health Survey for England 2008. Poster presented at International Conference on Ambulatory Monitoring of Physical Activity and Movement, Bethesda, USA

• Presentation Conference Type: Poster
• Conference Name: International Conference on Ambulatory Monitoring of Physical Activity and Movement
• Conference Location: Bethesda, USA
• Start Date: Jun 20, 2017
• End Date: Jun 23, 2017
• Publication Date: Jun 20, 2017
• Deposit Date: Apr 9, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 9, 2019
• Publisher URL: https://ismpb.org/2017-bethesda/
• Related Public URLs: https://ismpb.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/ICAMPAM2017AbstractBookletWebFINAL.pdf
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference