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12. Time-use Analysis

Source: vignettes/chapter12_TimeUseAnalysis.Rmd
chapter12_TimeUseAnalysis.Rmd

With the sleep classifications from GGIR part 4 as discussed in the previous chapter it is now possible to segment the recording into waking periods and sleeping periods. With this segmentation we can do a time-use analysis for both periods. The main purpose of GGIR part 5 is to facilitate this.

Creating a multi-variate time series object

As a first step we need to map out what happens when during the recording. Here, the GGIR code combines the information derived in parts 2, 3 and 4 into a multi-variate single time series object, including:

  • Timestamp
  • A log of when data was classified as invalid.
  • Average acceleration as derived in GGIR part 2, where invalid epochs are imputed and only the acceleration metric is used as specified with parameter acc.metric.
  • Sleep classifications from GGIR part 3 and 4. Behavioural class code, which GGIR part 5 derives the behavioural classes based on the magnitude of acceleration and sleep classification.

The exact number of behavioural classes as codified depends on how parameters are set, but constructed and codified as:

During the sleep period time window: - Sleep - Wakefulness with low acceleration - Wakefulness with moderate acceleration - Wakefulness with vigorous acceleration

During the waking hours of the day: - Inactivity unbouted - Inactivity bouted, subdivided into one or multiple bout durations - Total inactivity time - LIPA unbouted - LIPA bouted, subdivided into one or multiple bout durations - Total LIPA time - Moderate activity unbouted - Vigorous activity unbouted - MVPA bouted, subdivided into one or multiple bout durations - Total MVPA time

It is possible to export the time series generated, which will be discussed towards the end of this chapter.

Defining the time windows

In GGIR part 2 we defined days from midnight to midnight, and in GGIR part 4 we typically defined nights from noon to noon. With the access to sleep timing, GGIR part 5 offers additional definitions of a day. However, given that our definitions of a day are becoming very different from a calendar day, we refer to them as windows in the data.

GGIR part 5 facilitates the following time window definitions, which can be selected with parameter timewindow:

For “WW” and “OO”, the onset and waking times are guided by the estimates from part 4, but if they are missing, part 5 will attempt to retrieve the estimate from the guider method. Note that the parameter timewindow can consist of one of the options beforementioned or any combination of them, for example, the default value is timewindow = c("MM", "WW").
Timewindow Meaning Definition
“MM” midnight to midnight Each day is defined as the 24 hours starting and ending a calendar day (by default midnight, but modifiable with the parameter dayborder).
“WW” waking up to waking up Each day is defined as the time from the participant wakes up a given day to the time they wake up the next day.
“OO” sleep onset to sleep onset Each day is defined as the time from the sleep onset a given day to the sleep onset of the next day.

Defining segments within the MM window

By default GGIR segments a window in waking hours of the day (referred to as day) and the sleep period time window (referred to as spt). Additionally, when timewindow is set to “MM”, day segment specific analysis are performed based on the segments as defined by parameters qwindow . Please see the annex on day segmentation for more information.

Metrics calculated per window and per segment

GGIR provides the following metrics over the time windows calculated, i.e., full day, awake time, sleep period time, as well as (optionally) the day segments that might have been provided via the parameter qwindow.

  • Duration: Time spent in minute per behavioural class.
  • Acceleration: Average acceleration per behavioural class
  • Number of blocks: Number of blocks per behavioural class, where a distinction is made between bouted and unbouted, except for the total number of blocks per intensity levels (Nblocks_day_total_IN, Nblocks_day_total_LIPA, Nblocks_day_total_MOD, and Nblocks_day_total_VIG).
  • Number of bouts: Number of bouts per behavioural class.
  • Fragmentation: The fragmentation metrics as discussed in the previous chapter. Here no distinction is made between bouted or unbouted behavour. Note that fragmentation classes sometimes group multiple intensity levels, e.g. the fragmentation of physical activity reflects the fragmentation of LIPA and MVPA combined relative to Inactive time.

Complementary variables

If your primary interest is on sleep research then we recommend you to work with the GGIR part 4 reports. However, for those who want to look at interactions between behaviour and sleep, GGIR part 5 reports include sleep estimates as used for the part 5 analysis. Note that in part 5 the criteria for sleep estimate inclusion are different than for part 4. In part 5 we are happy with any estimate, even if the accelerometer was not worn during the night.

Additionally, part 5 will also come with the duration of the awake time, the sleep period time, the full-day windows, and percentage of non-wear (read invalid data, which is typically non-wear).

Seemingly overlapping variables between GGIR part 2 and part 5 output

As it might be noticed, there are some variables that are reported in both GGIR part 2 and part 5, such as the average acceleration and the bouts of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. However, please note that their values are not necessarily identical for the following reasons:

  • Times when MVPA can happen . In part 2 MVPA can happen at any time in the day, but never overlap with midnight. In part 5 MVPA only happens during the waking hours of a single day, but can overlap with midnight if midnight is not part of the sleep period time window. For those of you who use the dayborder parameter with a value not equal to zero: midnight in this scenario is not actually midnight but the time you set with parameter dayborder, e.g. 2 equates to 2am. .

  • Difference in epoch length. GGIR part 5 comes with the possibility to aggregate the epochs to 60 seconds with the parameter part5_agg2_60seconds. If this parameter is set to TRUE, then the full time series will be aggregated to 60 seconds, in contrast to the default 5 second epoch length used in part 2.

  • Different time window definition. GGIR part 2 always uses the “MM” definition of the days. In GGIR part 5, you have the option to define the days in different ways (see above).

Exporting time series

To export the time series set parameter save_ms5rawlevels = TRUE. GGIR part 5 will then store them in a subfolder of meta/ms5.outraw where each subfolder is named after the unique MVPA threshold combination used.

The behavioral classes are included as numbers, the legend for these classes numbers is stored as a separate legend file in the meta/ms5.outraw folder named “behavioralcodes2020-04-26.csv” where the date will correspond to the date you ran GGIR.

Note that the time series exported in GGIR part 5 only includes the acceleration metric as specified with parameter acc.metric (default = “ENMO”), and if angle metrics are selected, the angle metrics. If you want to explore multiple acceleration metric values, please see documentation for parameter epochvalues2csv as discussed in chapter 3.

Additional input parameters that may be of interest:

  • save_ms5raw_format is a character string to specify how data should be stored: either “csv” (default) or “RData”. Only used if save_ms5rawlevels=TRUE.
  • save_ms5raw_without_invalid is Boolean to indicate whether to remove invalid days from the time series output files. Only used if save_ms5rawlevels=TRUE.
Column name Description
timenum Time stamp in UTC time format (i.e., seconds since 1970-01-01). To convert timenum to time stamp format, you need to specify your desired time zone, e.g., as.POSIXct(mdat$timenum, tz = "Europe/London").
ACC Average acceleration metric selected by acc.metric, default = “ENMO”.
SleepPeriodTime Is 1 if SPT is detected, 0 if not. Note that this refers to the combined usage of guider and detected sustained inactivity bouts (rest periods).
invalidepoch Is 1 if epoch was detect as invalid (e.g. non-wear), 0 if not.
guider Number to indicate what guider type was used, where 1=sleeplog, 2=HDCZA, 3=swetwindow, 4=L512, 5=HorAngle, 6=NotWorn
window Numeric indicator of the analysis window in the recording. If timewindow = “MM” then these correspond to calendar days, if timewindow = “WW” then these correspond to which wakingup-wakingup window in the recording, if timewindow = “OO” then these correspond to which sleeponset-sleeponset window in the recording. So, in a recording of one week you may find window numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
class_id The behavioural class codes are documented in the exported csv file meta/ms5outraw/behaviouralcodes.csv. Class codes above class 8 will be analysis specific, because it depends on the number time variants of the bouts used. For example, if you look at MVPA lasting 1-10, 10-20, 30-40 then all of them will have their own class_id. In behaviouralcodes.csv you will find a column with class_names which match the behavioural classes as reported in the part 5 report.
invalid_fullwindow Percentage of the window (see above) that represents invalid data, included to ease filtering the timeseries based on whether windows are valid or not.
invalid_sleepperiod Percentage of SPT within the current window that represents invalid data.
invalid_wakinghours Percentage of waking hours within the current window that represents invalid data.
timestamp Time stamp derived from converting the column timenum, only available if save_ms5raw_format = TRUE.
angle anglez by default. If sensor.location = "hip" or HASPT.algo = "HorAngle" then angle represents the angle for the longitudinal axis as provided by argument longitudinal_axis or estimated if no angle was provided. If more angles were extracted in part 1 then these will be add with their letter appended.
lightpeak If lux sensor data is available in the data file then it was summarised at an epoch length defined by the second value of parameter windowsizes (defaults to 900 seconds = 15 minutes), to add this value to the time series it is interpolated, so the original time resolution is not necessarily reflected in this column.
temperature If temperature was available in the data file then it was summarised at an epoch length defined by the second value of parameter windowsizes (defaults to 900 seconds = 15 minutes), to add this value to the time series it is interpolated, so the original time resolution is not necessarily reflected in this column.

Key arguments

  • threshold.lig, threshold.mod, threshold.vig
  • boudur.in, boutdur.lig, boutdur.mvpa
  • boutcriter.in, boutcriter.lig, boutcriter.mvpa
  • frag.metrics
  • timewindow
  • part5_agg2_60seconds
  • save_ms5rawlevels
  • save_ms5raw_format
  • save_ms5raw_without_invalid

In https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/GGIR/vignettes/GGIR.html#43_Output_part_5 you will find a detailed discussion of the part 5 output. In summary, part 5 produces the following files. - Day level summary - Person level summary - Day level summary of behaviour per segment of a day - analysis - Person level summary of behaviour per segment of a day - Variable dictionary (see below) - Time series - Pdf reports with vsiualisation

Variables dictionary

Considering the different time window segmentation options, the number of metrics calculated, and the different aggregation strategies (i.e., plain averages, weighted averages, and -optionally- weekday and weekend-day averages), the number of variables exported in Part 5 can be high. To help you with the understanding and interpretation of the variables, GGIR Part5 exports a variable dictionary for the daysummary and personsummary csv reports. The dictionaries include a list of the variable names calculated in your analyses together with the definition of the variables.