Arm Movement: The Effect of Obesity on Active Lifestyles

Triaxial accelerometer logging using a sensor located in an arm band positioned immediately above the elbow was used to record the active range of motion, arm elevation angles and speed of movement activities throughout the waking hours. Using a 10 Hz sampling speed, the position of the arm was recorded in four angular position zones include at rest, the elbow is raised to within β degrees of the horizontal, the elbow lies in the range + β degrees of the horizontal, and the elbow is higher than the shoulder by more than β degrees. A graphical user interface (GUI) was developed to determine the time spent in each zone and the transition speed through the zones. Working women aged over 30 years old volunteered for this study. The participants were divided into groups and wore the armbands during the waking hours. There is statistical evidence that the angular velocity is linearly related to multiple variables such as body mass index and age (r = 0.75).