• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Practice parameters for the use of actigraphy in the military operational context: the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research Operational Research Kit-Actigraphy (WORK-A)
  • Contributor: Devine, Jaime K.; Choynowski, Jake; Burke, Tina; Carlsson, Kajsa; Capaldi, Vincent F.; McKeon, Ashlee B.; Sowden, Walter J.
  • imprint: Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2020
  • Published in: Military Medical Research
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1186/s40779-020-00255-7
  • ISSN: 2054-9369
  • Keywords: General Medicine
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec> <jats:title>Background</jats:title> <jats:p>The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) Operational Research Kit-Actigraphy (WORK-A) is a set of unique practice parameters and actigraphy-derived measures for the analysis of operational military sleep patterns. The WORK-A draws on best practices from the literature and comprises 15 additional descriptive variables. Here, we demonstrate the WORK-A with a sample of United States Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadets (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 286) during a month-long capstone pre-commissioning training exercise.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Methods</jats:title> <jats:p>The sleep of ROTC cadets (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 286) was measured by Philips Actiwatch devices during the 31-day training exercise. The preliminary effectiveness of the WORK-A was tested by comparing differences in sleep measures collected by Actiwatches as calculated by Philips Actiware software against WORK-A-determined sleep measures and self-report sleep collected from a subset of ROTC cadets (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 140).</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p>Actiware sleep summary statistics were significantly different from WORK-A measures and self-report sleep (all <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> ≤ 0.001). Bedtimes and waketimes as determined by WORK-A major sleep intervals showed the best agreement with self-report bedtime (22:21 ± 1:30 vs. 22:13 ± 0:40, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.21) and waketime (04:30 ± 2:17 vs. 04:31 ± 0:47, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.68). Though still significantly different, the discrepancy was smaller between the WORK-A measure of time in bed (TIB) for major sleep intervals (352 ± 29 min) and self-report nightly sleep duration (337 ± 57 min, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.006) than that between the WORK-A major TIB and Actiware TIB (177 ± 42, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> ≤ 0.001).</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title> <jats:p>Default actigraphy methods are not the most accurate methods for characterizing soldier sleep, but reliable methods for characterizing operational sleep patterns is a necessary first step in developing strategies to improve soldier readiness. The WORK-A addresses this knowledge gap by providing practice parameters and a robust variety of measures with which to profile sleep behavior in service members.</jats:p> </jats:sec>
  • Access State: Open Access