Comparison of Activity Levels Derived from Two Accelerometers in Dogs with Osteoarthritis-Associated Pain: Implications for Clinical Trials

 

Introduction: Accelerometer data are frequently reported as total weekly activity counts (AC); however, methods of further utilizing the activity data to allow differentiation of activity intensities have been established. While this information offers significant clinical value for researchers, only a few investigators have utilized this methodology, likely due to the labor involved in deriving this data. Novel devices offer methods of collecting this data in efficient manners, however, have not been currently. The objectives of this study were to(a) validate a novel accelerometer (Heyrex), (b) compare automatically generated categories quantifying activity intensity to established manually derived cut-points (Actical), and (c) describe variability of AC in dogs with osteoarthritis-associated pain (Actical & Heyrex).

Materials and Methods: Twelve client-owned dogs with osteoarthritis were fitted with a collar with two accelerometers (Heyrex and Actical), data were recorded for 28 days in 1-minute intervals. Gait analysis was performed once weekly. Automatically generated categories of activity intensity by the Actical were compared with established manually derived cut-points. Variability was determined for activity and gait data.

Results: There was a high correlation between the AC reported by Heyrex and Actical devices, and the amount of time spend in the automatically generated category “moderate” by the Actical and the validated cut-point-derived categories “walking” and “trotting.” Weekly AC displayed the least variability.

Discussion/Conclusion: Total AC from the Heyrex accelerometer correlate well with AC from the Actical. Automatically generated categories by the Actical provide a simplified method of analyzing canine activity intensity data.

Acknowledgment: There was no proprietary funding provided for this project.