Actigraphy scoring reliability in the study of osteoporotic fractures.
OBJECTIVE
The editing and scoring of actigraphy data are important for calculating variables that describe sleep. Scoring is dependent on marking time points for when a participant got in and out of bed, plus time when the actigraph was removed. This placement of time points is subject to error. We examined interscorer reliability to determine if files scored by 2 different people were comparable.


METHODS
Observational study.


METHODS
Community-based.


METHODS
A subset of 36 women taken from the latest biannual visit of the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures. All women had actigraphy data scored by 1 scorer for the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures staff, plus a blinded rescoring by an expert scorer at a different site.


METHODS
N/A.


RESULTS
The outcomes of interest from actigraphy are duration of in-bed interval, total sleep time, sleep latency, sleep efficiency, wake after sleep onset, total nap time, and total daytime minutes of watch removal. Clearly documented actigraphy scoring procedures were used. There were no significant differences between the expert scorer and the study scorer in sleep outcomes (all P values >.16 from a paired t test). There was a small but statistically significant difference between scorers for watch removal times (mean absolute difference 3.4 minutes +/- 5.4, P=.02). The intraclass correlation coefficients showed a high level of agreement (range, 0.84-0.99).


CONCLUSIONS
Even in a large study with 2 scorers, it is possible to use actigraphy as a measure of sleep without introducing interscorer measurement error. Using well-documented scoring and data-gathering procedures are essential for data quality control.
Blackwell
Terri
T
San Francisco Coordinating Center and California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA. tblackwell@psg.ucsf.edu
Ancoli-Israel
Sonia
S
Gehrman
Philip R
PR
Schneider
Jennifer L
JL
Pedula
Kathryn L
KL
Stone
Katie L
KL
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D050723:Fractures, Bone / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D019370:Observation; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology