Using open source accelerometer analysis to assess physical activity and sedentary behaviour in overweight and obese adults.

Background: Physical activity and sedentary behaviour are difficult to assess in overweight and obese adults. However, the use of open-source, raw accelerometer data analysis could overcome this. This study compared raw accelerometer and questionnaire-assessed moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), walking and sedentary behaviour in normal, overweight and obese adults, and determined the effect of using different methods to categorise overweight and obesity, namely body mass index (BMI), bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR).