Distributional regression data analysis across different race/ethnic groups and poverty levels in the US adult population

Disparities in physical activity may contribute to the well-known racial/ethnic and poverty gaps in health and well-being (Winkleby et al. 1998). Recent developments in wearable technologies enable the continuous recording, at a high resolution, of the amount and intensity of physical activity performed by an individual over a period of time. Unlike previous self-reported (mostly leisure time) physical activity evidence (Saffer et al. 2013; Dogra, Meisner, and Ardern 2010), monitoring the full continuum of device-based physical activity intensity can help uncover critical information to plan, implement, and evaluate public health initiatives that promote evidence-based practice and policy, particularly among at-risk populations that would most benefit. Capitalizing on a representative sample of the US population who wore wrist accelerometers, this study examined the impact of race/ethnicity and poverty on detailed functional representations of device-based physical activity.