Skip to main content
Erschienen in: German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research 2/2022

Open Access 01.06.2022 | Editorial

“Capturing life as it is lived”—Ambulatory Assessment for physical activity, sport and exercise research

verfasst von: Dr. Birte von Haaren-Mack, PhD, Prof. Dr. Martina Kanning, PhD, Prof. Dr. Ulrich W. Ebner-Priemer, PhD, JProf. Dr. Markus Reichert, PhD

Erschienen in: German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research | Ausgabe 2/2022

download
DOWNLOAD
print
DRUCKEN
insite
SUCHEN
The special issue “‘Capturing life as it is lived’—Ambulatory assessment for physical activity, sport and exercise” of the German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research aims to introduce the Ambulatory Assessment (AA) methodology into exercise, sport and movement science. In brief, AA enables to capture physical behavior data (on physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep) and its correlates in humans’ everyday life and in real-time, i.e., at any given moment.
AA describes a class of methods for data assessment to enable ecologically valid findings
AA is not a novel invention. Rather, the teaser of this special issue “‘Capturing life as it is lived’—Ambulatory assessment for physical activity, sport and exercise” is inspired by an pioneering AA paper published nearly 20 years ago (Bolger, Davis, & Rafaeli, 2003). Although researchers have applied AA for decades and mainly within psychological studies (e.g., Trull & Ebner-Priemer, 2013), it has just recently gained increasing interest within exercise, sport and movement science (e.g., Reichert et al., 2020b), with the association between physical activity and mood being one of the first research fields investigated by applying AA (e.g., Kanning & Schlicht, 2010; Liao, Shonkoff, & Dunton, 2015).
By definition, AA describes a class of methods for data assessment (and interventions) in near real-time and in real-world settings to enable ecologically valid findings (Society for Ambulatory Assessment, 2022). In particular, multiple data assessments across time and within subjects result in so-called intensive longitudinal data (ILD; e.g., Bolger, 2013; Conner & Mehl, 2015). For example, these data allow scientists to garner in-depth insights into within-person associations between physical behavior and behavioral, biological, physiological, as well as psychological factors in the everyday life of humans. Therefore, AA comprises methods such as physical activity monitoring (e.g., via Accelerometry; Burchartz et al., 2020; von Haaren-Mack, Bussmann, & Ebner-Priemer, 2021), physiological function assessment (e.g., via Mobile ElectroCardiogram; Ebner-Priemer & Kubiak, 2007), contextual sensing (e.g., via geolocation tracking; Tost et al., 2019), and self-reporting via e‑diaries (e.g., Ecological Momentary Assessment [EMA] and Experience Sampling Method [ESM]; Trull & Ebner-Priemer, 2009).
Translated to research practice, a prototypical AA study may therefore investigate associations between accelerometry-based physical activity and e‑diary-based self-reports. Since AA enables researchers to capture physical activity, sport and exercise “as it is” (real-time, real-life, etc.) and within a very broad range of research applications, this method is predestined to advance many subfields of exercise, sport, and movement science beyond traditional study formats. A small pretaste of the AA potential to move exercise, sport, and movement science forward is perfectly demonstrated by the various studies published in this special issue (Table 1). Therewith, the current special issue aims to provide a basis, for example, to combine expertise, to develop shared definitions and to further develop and validate AA in the field of exercise, sport, and movement science.
Table 1
Papers published in the special issue “‘Capturing life as it is lived’—Ambulatory assessment for physical activity, sport and exercise research”
Burchartz et al. (2022)
Impact of weekdays versus weekend days on accelerometer measured physical behavior among children and adolescents: Results from the MoMo Study Journal
Fiedler, Seiferth, Eckert, Woll, and Wunsch (2022)
Sleep quality, valence, energetic arousal, and calmness as predictors of device-based measured physical activity during a three-week mHealth intervention: An ecological momentary assessment study within the SMARTFAMILY trial
Hysenllari, Ottenbacher, and McLennan (2022)
Validation of human activity recognition using a convolutional neural network on accelerometer and gyroscope data
Jakowski (2022)
Self-tracking via smartphone app: Potential tool for athletes’ recovery self-management? A survey on technology usage and sleep behaviour
Van Laerhoven, Hoelzmann, Pahmeier, Teti, and Gabrys (2022)
Validation of an open-source ambulatory assessment system in support of replicable activity studies
Nigg, Burchartz, Reichert, Woll, and Niessner (2022)
Children and adolescents do not compensate for physical activity but do compensate for sedentary behavior
Reichert et al. (2022)
The association of stress and physical activity: Mind the ecological fallacy
Schilling et al. (2022)
Does dispositional self-control moderate the association between stress at work and physical activity after work? A real-life study with police officers
Schleitzer, Wirtz, Ross, and Eils (2022)
Development and evaluation of an IMU system for jump detection and jump height estimation in beach volleyball
Utesch, Piesch, Busch, Strauss, and Geukes (2022)
Self-tracking of daily physical activity using Fitbits and the effect of the 10,000 steps goal: A six-week randomized controlled parallel group trial
Of course, like other research methods, AA comes with challenges and limitations that, for example, comprise a time-consuming preprocessing of the ‘big data’, the need for advanced statistical methods such as multilevel models, and devices causing financial costs. However, we argue that the following AA advantages directly benefit research insights in exercise, sport, and movement science as shown by the papers published in this special issue:
  • Ecological validity of findings is increased through assessments in everyday life,
  • Biases of retrospective measurements and recall are decreased through the application of wearables such as smartphones, activity sensors and electronic diaries,
  • Within-person/intra-individual investigations across time are added to the traditional between-person/inter-individual level and can be analyzed simultaneously, for example, via multilevel modelling, and
  • Contextual factors (e.g., environmental exposures, social contexts) are considered through applying sensing methods such as geolocation-tracking
For the upcoming years, we are convinced that AA offers a huge potential for exercise, sport, and movement science even beyond the evident advantages described above. For example, AA can be combined with laboratory research to uncover (neuro)biological mechanisms (e.g., Reichert et al., 2020a), additional sensors can be embedded and advances in sensing technologies can be applied (von Haaren et al., 2016), triggered e‑diaries can help to optimize assessment strategies (Kanning, Niermann, Ebner-Primer, & Giurgiu, 2021), and ambulatory assessment interventions can enable the integration of experimental manipulation into everyday life (Heron & Smyth, 2010), just to name a few.

Conflict of interest

B. von Haaren-Mack, M. Kanning and M. Reichert declare that they have no competing interests. U. W. Ebner-Priemer has received consultant fees from Boehringer Ingelheim.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://​creativecommons.​org/​licenses/​by/​4.​0/​.
download
DOWNLOAD
print
DRUCKEN

Unsere Produktempfehlungen

e.Med Interdisziplinär

Kombi-Abonnement

Für Ihren Erfolg in Klinik und Praxis - Die beste Hilfe in Ihrem Arbeitsalltag

Mit e.Med Interdisziplinär erhalten Sie Zugang zu allen CME-Fortbildungen und Fachzeitschriften auf SpringerMedizin.de.

© Springer Medizin

Bis 11. April 2024 bestellen und im ersten Jahr 50 % sparen!

e.Med Allgemeinmedizin

Kombi-Abonnement

Mit e.Med Allgemeinmedizin erhalten Sie Zugang zu allen CME-Fortbildungen und Premium-Inhalten der allgemeinmedizinischen Zeitschriften, inklusive einer gedruckten Allgemeinmedizin-Zeitschrift Ihrer Wahl.

© Springer Medizin

Bis 11. April 2024 bestellen und im ersten Jahr 50 % sparen!

e.Med Innere Medizin

Kombi-Abonnement

Mit e.Med Innere Medizin erhalten Sie Zugang zu CME-Fortbildungen des Fachgebietes Innere Medizin, den Premium-Inhalten der internistischen Fachzeitschriften, inklusive einer gedruckten internistischen Zeitschrift Ihrer Wahl.

© Springer Medizin

Bis 11. April 2024 bestellen und im ersten Jahr 50 % sparen!

Weitere Produktempfehlungen anzeigen
Literatur
Zurück zum Zitat Burchartz, A., Anedda, B., Auerswald, T., Giurgiu, M., Hill, H., Ketelhut, S., Kolb, S., Mall. C., Manz, K., Nigg, C. R., Reichert, M., Sprengeler, O., Wunsch, K., & Matthews, C. E. (2020). Assessing physical behavior through accelerometry—state of the science, best practices and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 49, 101703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101703.CrossRef Burchartz, A., Anedda, B., Auerswald, T., Giurgiu, M., Hill, H., Ketelhut, S., Kolb, S., Mall. C., Manz, K., Nigg, C. R., Reichert, M., Sprengeler, O., Wunsch, K., & Matthews, C. E. (2020). Assessing physical behavior through accelerometry—state of the science, best practices and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 49, 101703. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1016/​j.​psychsport.​2020.​101703.CrossRef
Zurück zum Zitat Burchartz, A., Oriwol, D., Kolb, S., Schmidt, S. C. E., von Haaren, B., Niessner, C., & Woll, A. (2022). Impact of weekdays versus weekend days on accelerometer measured physical behavior among children and adolescents: results from the MoMo-study journal. German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-022-00811-4.CrossRef Burchartz, A., Oriwol, D., Kolb, S., Schmidt, S. C. E., von Haaren, B., Niessner, C., & Woll, A. (2022). Impact of weekdays versus weekend days on accelerometer measured physical behavior among children and adolescents: results from the MoMo-study journal. German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1007/​s12662-022-00811-4.CrossRef
Zurück zum Zitat Fiedler, J., Seiferth, C., Eckert, T., Woll, A., & Wunsch, K. (2022). Sleep quality, valence, energetic arousal, and calmness as predictors of device-based measured physical activity during a three-week mHealth intervention: An ecological momentary assessment study within the SMARTFAMILY trial. German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-022-00809-y.CrossRefPubMedCentral Fiedler, J., Seiferth, C., Eckert, T., Woll, A., & Wunsch, K. (2022). Sleep quality, valence, energetic arousal, and calmness as predictors of device-based measured physical activity during a three-week mHealth intervention: An ecological momentary assessment study within the SMARTFAMILY trial. German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1007/​s12662-022-00809-y.CrossRefPubMedCentral
Zurück zum Zitat von Haaren, B., Ottenbacher, J., Muenz, J., Neumann, R., Boes, K., & Ebner-Priemer, U. (2016). Does a 20-week aerobic exercise training programme increase our capabilities to buffer real-life stressors? A randomized, controlled trial using ambulatory assessment. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 116(2), 383–394. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-015-3284-8.CrossRef von Haaren, B., Ottenbacher, J., Muenz, J., Neumann, R., Boes, K., & Ebner-Priemer, U. (2016). Does a 20-week aerobic exercise training programme increase our capabilities to buffer real-life stressors? A randomized, controlled trial using ambulatory assessment. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 116(2), 383–394. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1007/​s00421-015-3284-8.CrossRef
Zurück zum Zitat Reichert, M., Braun, U., Gan, G., Reinhard, I., Giurgiu, M., Ma, R., Zang, Z., Hennig, O., Koch, E.D., Wieland, L., Schweiger, J., Inta, D., Hoell, A., Akdeniz, C., Zipf, A. Ebner-Priemer, U.W., Tost, H., & Meyer-Lindenberg, A. (2020a). A neural mechanism for affective well-being: Subgenual cingulate cortex mediates real-life effects of nonexercise activity on energy. Science Advances. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz8934.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral Reichert, M., Braun, U., Gan, G., Reinhard, I., Giurgiu, M., Ma, R., Zang, Z., Hennig, O., Koch, E.D., Wieland, L., Schweiger, J., Inta, D., Hoell, A., Akdeniz, C., Zipf, A. Ebner-Priemer, U.W., Tost, H., & Meyer-Lindenberg, A. (2020a). A neural mechanism for affective well-being: Subgenual cingulate cortex mediates real-life effects of nonexercise activity on energy. Science Advances. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1126/​sciadv.​aaz8934.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
Zurück zum Zitat Reichert, M., Giurgiu, M., Koch, E., Wieland, L. M., Lautenbach, S., Neubauer, A. B., von Haaren-Mack B., Schilling R., Timm, I., Notthoff N., Marzi, I., Hill, H., Brüβler S., Eckert T., Fiedler, J., Burchartz, A., Anedda, B., Wunsch, K., Gerber, M., Jekauc, D., Woll, A., Dunton, G. F., Kanning, M., Nigg CR, Ebner-Priemer, U., & Liao, Y. (2020b). Ambulatory assessment for physical activity research: state of the science, best practices and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101742.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral Reichert, M., Giurgiu, M., Koch, E., Wieland, L. M., Lautenbach, S., Neubauer, A. B., von Haaren-Mack B., Schilling R., Timm, I., Notthoff N., Marzi, I., Hill, H., Brüβler S., Eckert T., Fiedler, J., Burchartz, A., Anedda, B., Wunsch, K., Gerber, M., Jekauc, D., Woll, A., Dunton, G. F., Kanning, M., Nigg CR, Ebner-Priemer, U., & Liao, Y. (2020b). Ambulatory assessment for physical activity research: state of the science, best practices and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1016/​j.​psychsport.​2020.​101742.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
Zurück zum Zitat Reichert, M., Brüßler, S., Reinhard, I., Braun, U., Giurgiu, M., Hoell, A., Zipf, A., Meyer-Lindenberg, A., Tost, H., & Ebner-Priemer, U. W. (2022). The association of stress and physical activity: mind the ecological fallacy. German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-022-00823-0.CrossRef Reichert, M., Brüßler, S., Reinhard, I., Braun, U., Giurgiu, M., Hoell, A., Zipf, A., Meyer-Lindenberg, A., Tost, H., & Ebner-Priemer, U. W. (2022). The association of stress and physical activity: mind the ecological fallacy. German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1007/​s12662-022-00823-0.CrossRef
Zurück zum Zitat Schilling, R., Cody, R., Ludyga, S., Brand, S., Faude, O., Pühse, U., & Gerber, M. (2022). Does dispositional self-control moderate the association between stress at work and physical activity after work? A real-life study with police officers. German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-022-00810-5.CrossRef Schilling, R., Cody, R., Ludyga, S., Brand, S., Faude, O., Pühse, U., & Gerber, M. (2022). Does dispositional self-control moderate the association between stress at work and physical activity after work? A real-life study with police officers. German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1007/​s12662-022-00810-5.CrossRef
Zurück zum Zitat Tost, H., Reichert, M., Braun, U., Reinhard, I., Peters, R., Lautenbach, S., Hoell, A., Schwarz, E., Ebner-Priemer, U., Zipf, A., & Meyer-Lindenberg, A. (2019). Neural correlates of individual differences in affective benefit of real-life urban green space exposure. Nature neuroscience, 22(9), 1389–1393. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-019-0451-y.CrossRefPubMed Tost, H., Reichert, M., Braun, U., Reinhard, I., Peters, R., Lautenbach, S., Hoell, A., Schwarz, E., Ebner-Priemer, U., Zipf, A., & Meyer-Lindenberg, A. (2019). Neural correlates of individual differences in affective benefit of real-life urban green space exposure. Nature neuroscience, 22(9), 1389–1393. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1038/​s41593-019-0451-y.CrossRefPubMed
Zurück zum Zitat Utesch, T., Piesch, L., Busch, L., Strauss, B., & Geukes, K. (2022). Self-tracking of daily physical activity using Fitbits and the effect of the 10,000 steps goal: A six-week randomized controlled parallel group trial. German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-022-00821-2.CrossRef Utesch, T., Piesch, L., Busch, L., Strauss, B., & Geukes, K. (2022). Self-tracking of daily physical activity using Fitbits and the effect of the 10,000 steps goal: A six-week randomized controlled parallel group trial. German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1007/​s12662-022-00821-2.CrossRef
Metadaten
Titel
“Capturing life as it is lived”—Ambulatory Assessment for physical activity, sport and exercise research
verfasst von
Dr. Birte von Haaren-Mack, PhD
Prof. Dr. Martina Kanning, PhD
Prof. Dr. Ulrich W. Ebner-Priemer, PhD
JProf. Dr. Markus Reichert, PhD
Publikationsdatum
01.06.2022
Verlag
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Erschienen in
German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research / Ausgabe 2/2022
Print ISSN: 2509-3142
Elektronische ISSN: 2509-3150
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-022-00824-z

Weitere Artikel der Ausgabe 2/2022

German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research 2/2022 Zur Ausgabe

DOSB Informationen

DOSB Informationen

Arthropedia

Grundlagenwissen der Arthroskopie und Gelenkchirurgie. Erweitert durch Fallbeispiele, Videos und Abbildungen. 
» Jetzt entdecken

Update Orthopädie und Unfallchirurgie

Bestellen Sie unseren Fach-Newsletter und bleiben Sie gut informiert.