26: Exploring Physical Activity Data Integration: Merging Accelerometer Data from Multiple Studies

Music City Center 

The "mobile Motor Activity Research Consortium for Health" (mMARCH) is a collaborative network of clinical and community studies across Switzerland, Australia, and the United States, focusing on the relationship between motor activity and human physiology, behavior, and health. Involving 10 mMARCH cohorts (N=8,903), accelerometer data were processed using the GGIR package. Functional principal component analysis (FPCA) assessed the effects of study, device, season, age, sex, and BMI on physical activity data. Notably, all data were collected using GeneActiv devices, except for one study (N=1,052) that utilized the GT3X device. The analysis revealed that the type of device used was the most significant factor influencing motor activity measurements, with GT3X data distinctly separating from GeneActiv data in FPCA plots. Additionally, functional principal components were strongly affected by study and age, while sex and BMI had moderate impacts. In conclusion, due to significant variations attributed to the study in the mMARCH cohort, motor activity data could not be directly merged, and statistical analyses involving data from multiple studies should be approached with caution.

mMARCH

GGIR package

functional principal component analysis

data merging 

Section on Statistical Computing