What is an activity monitor?

If you are taking part in the study you will be asked to wear an activity monitor (also called an accelerometer) for seven days in a row. The monitors are small devices worn on a belt around the waist. They tell us how active you are – but not where you are or what you are doing. The monitor works by measuring how much you move throughout the day.

When should I wear the activity monitor?

You should wear the activity monitor at all times – at home, whilst at school, and over the weekend. We ask you to put the belt on as soon as you wake up in the morning and to wear it as much possible until you go to bed at night. If you go to any clubs, such as brownies / cubs or sports clubs, you should still keep it on. The more you wear it, the better the information that you give us.

When should I not wear the activity monitor?

There are only three occasions when you should take off the activity monitor:

1. In bed – wearing it in bed would not be very comfortable
2. As they are not waterproof, you should take it off before taking a bath, shower, or going swimming. Put it back on as soon you are dry.
3. When playing contact sports like rugby and karate it may be a good idea to take it off. You should wear it during most other sports, games and activities.

How should I wear the activity monitor?

You should wear the belt below your waist, so that the red box sits on your right hip. There is a small black bump (that looks like a button) on one side of the box, this black bump should always be facing upwards when the belt is in being worn.

What happens if I forget to bring back my activity monitor?

If you forget to bring your belt back on the collection day, please bring it in on the next school day. It still holds valuable data, so we really need to collect it back in as soon as possible.

What happens if I lose my activity monitor?

Hopefully this will not happen as you will be wearing it most of the time. However, if you think you may have lost it, please try as hard as you can to find it again and to return it to us, even if it is late. Please let us know as soon as possible if you think you may have lost your monitor as we work very hard to try and get them all back quickly.

Why don’t all the schools get the Action 3:30 clubs?

The division into ‘intervention’ and ‘comparison’ schools means that half the schools will receive the clubs and half will not. This is because we need to test how physically active the children in the intervention schools are compared with children who do not receive the clubs. The children in the comparison schools are just as important to our research as the children in who receive the clubs.

What happens to the data collected? Is it safe?

We take data protection very seriously. The information we collect on all the children is stored securely. All questionnaires and computerised data are stored against an ID and not against the children’s’ names. This means that when the data is analysed it is anonymous, so the researchers will not know which child the information belongs to.