Classification of occupational activity categories using accelerometry: NHANES 2003–2004

Steeves, Jeremy A.; Tudor-Locke, Catrine; Murphy, Rachel A.; King, George A.; Fitzhugh, Eugene C.; Harris, Tamara B.

doi:10.1186/s12966-015-0235-z

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

Table 3 Occupational categories ranked by summary score of the accelerometer-derived variables and the corresponding OA groupings

From: Classification of occupational activity categories using accelerometry: NHANES 2003–2004

Rank	OA grouping	Occupational category	TAC	Activity counts/min	MVPA %	Lifestyle %	Light %	Sedentary %	Summary score
1	High OA	Farm and nursery workers	5	3	3	3	14 ↓	3	31
2		Other helpers, cleaners, hand packagers, laborers	8	6	8	6	6	2	36
3		Construction laborers	2	2	2	5	26 ↓	4	41
4		Related agricultural, forestry, and fishing	1	1	1	4	30 ↓↓	5	42
5		Cleaning and building service occupations	3	4	7	1	23 ↓	6	44
6		Construction trades	7	5	5	7	17 ↓	7	48
7		Freight, stock, and material movers (hand)	6	8	9	2	16 ↓	9	50
8		Farm operators, managers, and supervisors	4	7	4	8	19 ↓	10	52
9		Textile, apparel, furnishings machine operators	9	9	6	13	22 ↓	13	72
10		Machine operators, assorted materials	13	11	22 ↓	15 ↓	4	8	73
11		Waiters and waitresses	16 ↓	13	32 ↓↓	11	1	1	74
12		Other mechanics and repairers	12	10	14 ↓	12	18 ↓	15 ↓	81
13		Motor vehicle operators	11	14 ↓	12	23 ↓	10	17 ↓	87
14	Intermediate OA	Supervisors and proprietors, sales occupations	14	15	24	10 ↑	12 ↑	14	89
15		Fabricators, assemblers, inspectors, and samplers	17	18	15	22	8 ↑	18	98
16		Other transportation and material moving	10 ↑	12 ↑	11 ↑	18	32 ↓	26	109
17		Private household occupations	20	16	10 ↑	19	24	21	110
18		Vehicle and mobile equip. mechanics, repairers	19	19	29 ↓	16	11 ↑	16	110
19		Material recording, scheduling, distributing clerks	15	17	21	14	28 ↓	23	118
20		Cooks	25	24	33 ↓	25	3 ↑	12 ↑	122
21		Miscellaneous food preparation and service	32 ↓	22	35 ↓	24	2 ↑	11 ↑	126
22		Extractive and precision production occupations	18	20	25	21	21	24	129
23		Laborers, except construction	22	26	40 ↓	9 ↑	13 ↑	20	130
24		Sales workers, retail and personal services	21	21	26	20	20	22	130
25		Health service occupations	31 ↓	25	34 ↓	17	7 ↑	19	133
26		Sales reps., finance, business, & commodities	23	23	18	26	35 ↓	31 ↓	156
27	Low OA	Technicians and related support occupations	26 ↑	27	16 ↑	37	33	32	171
28		Information clerks	35	37	36	36	5 ↑↑	25 ↑	174
29		Health diagnosing, assessing and treating	33	34	31	34	15 ↑	28	175
30		Executive, administrators, and managers	29	29	23 ↑	28	34	33	176
31		Writers, artists, entertainers, and athletes	27	30	17 ↑	31	36	36	177
32		Personal service occupations	38	38	39	30	9 ↑↑	27	181
33		Management related occupations	24 ↑	28	19 ↑	33	39	39	182
34		Teachers	30	32	27	35	29	30	183
35		Protective service occupations	34	33	20 ↑	27	38	37	189
36		Engineers, architects and scientists	28	31	13 ↑↑	40	40	40	192
37		Miscellaneous administrative support occupations	37	35	28	32	31	29	192
38		Other professional specialty occupations	36	36	30	29	37	38	206
39		Records processing occupations	39	39	37	38	27	35	215
40		Secretaries, stenographers, and typists	40	40	38	39	25 ↑	34	216

Rank, the 40 occupational categories were ranked in ascending order according to the summary score, a higher rank (e.g., 1) is reflective of having greater amounts of OA (occupational activity); OA Grouping, tertile splits of the summary scores were used to establish three accelerometer determined OA groupings: high OA, intermediate OA, and low OA; Occupational category, based on the 1980 U.S. Census Bureau Classification Coding System; TAC, rank according to total activity counts; Activity counts/min, rank according to activity counts per minute; MVPA%, rank according to the proportion of time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (≥2020 counts); Lifestyle %, rank according to the proportion of time spent in lifestyle intensity physical activity (760–2019 counts); Light %, rank according to the proportion of time spent in light intensity physical activity (100–759 counts); Sedentary %, rank according to the proportion of time spent in sedentary intensity activity (0–99 counts). Sedentary % reverse coded so that 1 = least sedentary; Summary score, sum of the rank of all six accelerometer-derived variables for each occupational category. Bolded values = higher (↑) or lower (↓) values for an accelerometer-derived variable relative to their OA grouping; (↑ or ↓) = jumped one OA grouping relative to their OA grouping, (↑↑ or ↓↓) = jumped two OA groupings relative to their OA grouping

Back to article page

ISSN: 1479-5868

Contact us

Submission enquiries: Access here and click Contact Us
General enquiries: info@biomedcentral.com