Epoch Length and Its Effect on Physical Activity Intensity

Abstract

A short epoch is strongly recommended for child and adolescent samples to obtain a "real" picture of young people's physical activity behavior and to prevent accumulation of counts reflecting the average activity level when longer epochs are used. Activity prevalence studies using epoch lengths of 5 and 60 s in a child or an adolescent sample should not be compared nor should 15- and 60- and 30- and 60-s epochs in an adolescent sample.