DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.12615467
title: GENEActiv accelerometer files collected during the project entitled "Cultures et comportements alimentaires de la jeunesse dans les pays francophones du Pacifique au XXIème siècle: exemple de la Nouvelle-Calédonie" [Eng: "Eating cultures and behaviors of young people in French-speaking Pacific countries in the 21st century: the example of New Caledonia"] (anonymized version - first part)

description: GENEActiv accelerometer .csv files converted with a 1 second epoch from raw GENEActiv .bin files recorded during the project entitled "Cultures et comportements alimentaires de la jeunesse dans les pays francophones du Pacifique au XXIème siècle: exemple de la Nouvelle-Calédonie" [en: "Eating cultures and behaviors of young people in French-speaking Pacific countries in the 21st century: the example of New Caledonia"]. Devices are 60-Hz triaxial accelerometers.

This dataset also contains participantCharacteristics.csv that povides basic information about participants and read_a_binFile_share.R that is a short R code aiming at converting and saving accelerometer data from .bin files in 1 second epoch .csv files (consider the Methods section).

Participant characteristics: 10 to 16 years old students and some parents.

Number of participants: 231 (206 adolescents + 25 adults).

Year of the study: 2018 - 2019.

Place of the study: New Caledonia.

The accelerometer .csv files with a 1 second epoch and extracted from raw .bin files are available in open datasets:



anonymized version - first part

anonymized version - second part

anonymized version - third part


The accelerometer raw .bin files are available in restricted datasets:



non-anonymized version - first part

non-anonymized version - second part

non-anonymized version - third part


Other participant characteristics (age, place of living, cultural community and socio-economic status) are available in a restricted non-anonymized dataset.

When using this dataset, please cite the following reference:G. Wattelez, S. Frayon, O. Galy, Assessing physical activity/behavior of adolescents living in the Pacific with accelerometer data: 231 GENEActiv records in New Caledonia, Data in Brief 58 (2025) 111228, doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2024.111228
description: Consent

Written consent was obtained from the children's parents before the start of the study. The project was first authorized by the Vice-Rectorate and then presented to the school directors. The targeted schools were contacted, and the project was then proposed to the teaching teams for their acceptance.

Data collection

Data were collected between July 2018 and April 2019, from 1060 school-going adolescents (10–16 years old) during class time. In each school, two classes per level (6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd) were chosen to respond to the anonymous questionnaire, which consisted of two parts lasting 30 minutes each and was carried out in two stages.

About 30 participants (according to the number of devices available) per school were randomly selected to wear a GENEActiv accelerometer device for 5 to 7 consecutive days, or more. Consenting participants wore the device for 7 days. When a participant refused to wear the device, another random draw was made. A total of 211 adolescents accepted to wear an accelerometer device.

Data readability, validity and conversion

We were not able to get data from 5 adolescent devices because of device or record failure. In this dataset containing 231 files, 206 files are from adolescents and 25 are from adults (volunteer parents).

Raw data files are readable with common software libraries, like the R package GENEAread as well as with the GENEActiv software.

The current .csv data files were obtained thanks to the following steps:



Data collection with GENEActiv accelerometer device: data is stored in devices

Data extraction with the GENEActiv software: data is stored in .bin files

Data conversion with the R package GENEAread: consider the code in the read_a_binFile_share.R in the current dataset [reading the file, computing support vector magnitude (SVMg) from x, y and z acceleration, grouping data in 1 second blocs (timestamp: min grouping; x, y and z axes: mean and standard deviation grouping; light and temperature: mean grouping; SVMg: sum grouping)]

Saving the file in .csv format
description: Description of the files

Accelerometer .csv files

Accelerometer .csv files are conversions from .bin files collected with GENEActiv accelerometer device and extracted with the GENEActiv software. They are 1 second epoch files. Each accelerometer .csv file contains the following columns:

timestamp: start time of the 1 second epochxm: 1 second epoch average of the x accelerationym: 1 second epoch average of the y accelerationzm: 1 second epoch average of the z accelerationlightm: 1 second epoch average of the lighttempm: 1 second epoch average of the temperaturesvmgsum: 1 second epoch sum of the SVMgsdx: 1 second epoch standard deviation of the x accelerationsdy: 1 second epoch standard deviationof the y accelerationsdz: 1 second epoch standard deviationof the z accelerationid: name of the original .bin file

Code for extraction and conversion

The read_a_binFile_share.R is an example of R code that uses the GENEAread library to extract information from a .bin GENEActiv file, compute the support vector magnitude (SVMg) from x, y and z accelerations, group the information in a 1 second epoch record and save the result in a .csv file.

Participant characteristics

participantCharacteristics.csv file describes the participants with de-identified information. Here are the meaning of the columns:

Participant ID: Participant ID for this studyParticipant status: Participant status in the study ("Adolescent" or "Adult")Age range: Age range of the adolescent participant ("Less than or equal to 12", "Between 13 and 14 inclusive" or "Greater than or equal to 15"); unknown for adultsSex: Sex of the participant ("Female" or "Male")GeneActiv file: GENEActiv file (with no extension) associated with the participantStarting Day: Starting day of data collection, i.e. first day the device is wornDay of removal: Day of device removal, i.e. last day the device is wornDOI of the non-anonymized repository: DOI of the repository where is stored the .bin fileDOI of the anonymized repository: DOI of the repository where is stored the accelerometer .csv file