## 4 Discussion  
The purpose of this study was to present reference values for accelerometer-based data on physical activity from a background population. Among the 242 participants, there was an average of 6095 daily steps, the average cadence was 98.5, and 3.7 h were spent standing, 1.4 h walking, 3.8 min cycling, 7.0 h on sedentary activities, and average number of sit to stand transfers was 43. The results varied when examining sex and individual age groups. Our study found that the oldest age groups had the lowest average number of daily steps, represented the highest proportion in the very low-intensity group, and had the lowest cadence and the most time spent sedentary compared to the younger age groups. This is in accordance with previous literature that shows that physical activity declines with age [25]. This may be caused by age-related reduction in muscle strength and changes in flexibility, agility, and endurance [26]. Furthermore, we found that men had the lowest cadence and average number of daily steps compared to women, which agrees with previous literature and is possibly due to women having a smaller step stride compared to men [19; 27; 28; 29]. These age and sex differences are important to consider, e.g., when choosing physical interventions in an age- and sex-heterogenic group. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Dimension** & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Total**} & **18–29** & **30–39** & **40–49** & **50–59** & **60–69** & \(\geq\)**70** \\ \hline Parameter & Mean (SD) & Mean (SD) & Mean (SD) & Mean (SD) & Mean (SD) & Mean (SD) & Mean (SD) \\ \hline Frequency & & & & & & & & \\ Steps, n & M & \begin{tabular}{c} 5911 \\ (3192) \\ \end{tabular}  & 4354 (2055) & 6497 (4166) & 6723 (3562) & 5199 (3238) & \begin{tabular}{c} 7198 \\ (3383) \\ \end{tabular}  & 4886 \\  & W & \ \begin{tabular}{c} 6271 \\ (3500) \\ \end{tabular}  & 7115 (4082) & 4880 (3481) & 5454 (3629) & 6738 (4065) & \begin{tabular}{c} 6342 \\ (2049) \\ \end{tabular}  & 6211 \\ \hline Intensity & & & & & & & (2049) \\ Cadence, steps/min & M & 96.1 (9.4) & 99.6 (6.7) & 104.2 (7.8) & 98.3 (4.5) & 96.4 (11.5) & 95.7 (9.6) & 91.7 (8.6) \\  & W & 100.9 (7.9) & 99.6 (6.5) & 102.6 (8.2) & 102.1 (5.8) & 100.7 (10.1) & 101.5 (8.4) & 99.7 (6.9) \\ Very low intensity, \% & M & 74.1 (14.5) & 66.7 (22.6) & 74.5 (10.3) & 66.0 (14.9) & 73.2  
Previous studies utilizing accelerometers to assess physical activity have focused on specific patient groups and/or compared their physical activity to young and healthy subjects [14; 15; 17; 18; 30]. To our knowledge, no previous study has reported accelerometer-based daily physical activity following all the dimensions in the FITT model in a large background population. However, a previous study from the Netherlands by [PERSON] et al. [19] reported accelerometer-based gait analysis according to sex and age for a group of healthy individuals. For all sex and age groups, the average cadence reported in the study by [PERSON] et al. was higher than the average cadence reported in our study. This is possibly caused by the differences in study populations and in wear time, since the study by [PERSON] et al. only included healthy individuals, whereas our study included individuals regardless of their general health and physical fitness, if they were capable of walking around at home. Furthermore, a Danish study by [PERSON] et al. [31] reported accelerometer-based daily physical activity for people residing in the capital of Denmark. Compared to our study, the study by [PERSON] et al. reported a much higher number of average daily steps despite reporting almost the same average daily time of walking, which indicates that capital residents tend to walk faster. The strengths of our study include a valid objective accelerometer-based method used to collect data on daily physical activity [12; 13].