Wearable Artificial Intelligence for Assessing Physical Activity in High School Children

Abstract

Eighty one percent of adolescents aged 11–17 years are inadequately physically active worldwide. Physical activity (PA) recommendations for high school children have not been studied previously in schools in the Qatar region. The objectives of the study were: (i) to assess the level of compliance of the recommended PA and to assess if there are any gender differences; and (ii) to analyze the recommended step count compliance during school and non-school days. An observational cross-sectional study was conducted. Twenty-nine children (12 boys and 17 girls) aged 13–17 years (15.24 ± 1.46) took part in this study. Participants wore Fitbit Charge 5 wrist bands for three weeks to collect various digital biomarkers including moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and step counts (tracking during out-of-school time and school time). Based on this study, high school children in the two Qatar region schools did not meet the MVPA and steps/day recommendation by the established agencies: 38% of the total study group met the recommended 60 min/day of activity (50% boys, 29% girls). Gender differences were also observed in PA levels and steps per day: for non-school days, 17% met the recommended 10,000 steps/day (25% boys, 12% girls). There was a pattern of greater PA performance and steps during the weekdays as opposed to the weekend, but these values showed no robust evidence in favor of H1 or statistical significance for step counts. However, the evidence was robust in favor of H1 (difference between weekend and weekday) due to a statistically significant difference for meeting the 60 min/day activity. While further studies are required to establish if this is a general trend in Qatari schools, this pilot study does highlight the need to design more effective programs and messaging strategies to improve PA levels in the high school population.