Resources: Workshop Introduction

The aim of this workshop was to support African researchers to develop physical activity study protocols, conduct fieldwork using accelerometers, and analyse the output data according to different study objectives.

Physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for mortality and one of the four main risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs); with 80% of deaths from NCDs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Evidence to design better physical activity interventions in LMICs across the life course is urgently needed. This requires accurate ways of measuring free-living physical activity levels including light unstructured activities.

Waveform accelerometers are increasingly being used for objective measurement of physical activity due to improvements in their design and cost. This allows researchers to collect 24-hour continuous data at higher resolution than ever before. But this raises new challenges in the processing, analysis and interpretation of these huge datasets, and until now many researchers have relied on centres such as Cambridge to do this work for them. The MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge have now developed a standalone executable program available to researchers globally for processing waveform accelerometry data on their own computers.

The objective of this workshop was to build capacity for African researchers to independently conduct and analyse large-scale studies using accelerometry. The workshop was conducted online consisting of a mixture of taught sessions, self-guided and zoom help sessions. The workshop attracted delegates from 11 different African countries. It is important that those who attended the workshop implement their learning and disseminate the knowledge acquired in their own research institutions. The resources available on this website should enable them to do this.

This workshop was funded by Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund and supported by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre Measurement Platform.