Information on activity monitors for children
Accelerometers (Activity belts)
The accelerometers that you are asked to wear are used to measure activity. They work by counting movement and time, so they can let us know how active you were at different times of day.
When to wear the belt
You should wear the belt as much as possible, from when you wake up in the morning, until you go to bed at night. The more you wear it, the more useful the information it records is to us. You should wear the belt while you are at home, while you are school, and over the weekend. You can wear it to any clubs that you attend (e.g. cubs/scouts, brownies/guides, sports clubs, after school club etc).
When not to wear the belt
There are 3 times when you should not wear your belt:
When you get WET. The belts don’t like water, so please remember to take it off before having a bath or shower or going swimming. Simply put it back on again as soon as you are dry.
While you SLEEP. You do not need to the wear the belt while you are sleeping. Take it off when you get ready for bed, then leave it by the side of your bed so you can put it straight on when you get up in the morning.
When playing VERY ROUGH CONTACT SPORTS OR ACTIVITIES. You should wear your belt for PE and most sports, games and activities, e.g. football, dance, hockey, athletics, tennis and gymnastics. If you play a particularly rough contact sport, e.g. karate, you may prefer to take it off while you complete your session. Remember to put it back on afterwards!
When to bring the belt back to school
You need to wear the belt for 6 days (including the day it is given to you) and hand it to the teacher on the 7th day. For instance, if you are given the belt on a Tuesday, you need to hand it back to your teacher on the following Monday.
A poster in your classroom will remind which day the belts are being collected, but you can always check with your teacher if you are unsure.
What information do we get from the belts?
The belts tell us whether you spend your time sitting still (maybe watching TV or playing computer games), being lightly active (maybe walking around with friends), or being very active (playing sports and running around). An example of a graph from a child that wore their belt recently is below in figure 1:
Figure 1. Example of data from an activity belt
This child spent 3/4 of their time being what we call ‘sedentary’, this means sitting around maybe watching TV, or playing computer games. We will be able to see a graph just like this for the time that you wear a belt.