Studying multiple health behaviours in older adults using a measurement burst design: protocol, feasibility, compliance, behavioural patterns and lessons learned

Abstract

Overweight and obesity are major public health challenges, requiring preventive efforts targeting diet, physical activity (PA), sedentary behaviour (SB) and sleep. Current research often treats these behaviours in isolation, ignores daily fluctuations and focuses on between-person differences. Studies examining the temporal covariance of these behaviours, assessing within-day and day-to-day variations in determinants and exploring how these time-varying determinants predict within-person variability in behaviours are needed. This paper aims to evaluate the feasibility of a measurement burst design with repeated intensive longitudinal assessments and to present patterns of behaviours and determinants. A 12-month observational study with a measurement burst design was conducted (January–December 2025). In total, 130 participants aged 55–75 years enrolled in the study, which consisted of four 7-day measurement bursts. Data collection included monitoring of diet, PA, SB, sleep and time-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Compliance rates, descriptive statistics per burst and across bursts were computed. 116 participants completed all bursts (retention rate = 89·2 %). Compliance rates ranged from 83·5 % for time-based EMA to 91·8 % for SB, supporting feasibility of the protocol. Mean values of 1692 kcal/day (

= 565) for energy intake, 9·4 h/day ( = 2·4) for sedentary time and 10 610 steps/day ( = 6302) were observed. Mean daily light, moderate and vigorous PA-levels were 102·9 ( = 37·4), 65·5 ( = 43·4) and 11·5 ( = 17·0) minutes, respectively. Mean sleep duration was 6·4 h/night ( = 1·3), with a mean sleep efficiency of 79·2 % ( = 10·2). This paper demonstrated the feasibility of integrating multiple assessment methods within a measurement burst design for studying health behaviours in adults aged 55–75 years and highlighted the value of analyses at more fine-grained temporal and individual levels.