Developing more accurate assessments of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) is an important public health research priority. Assessing PA and SB is challenging in all segments of the population, but it is especially difficult in children due to cognitive limitations and more sporadic and intermittent activity patterns. Moreover, they are influenced by several factors including temporal-spatial constraints and social conditions. To accurately assess PA and SB, it is essential to clearly define methods for describing all these factors. The goal of this paper is to potentiate advances in the field by proposing a base ontology for characterizing physical activity, sedentary behavior, and the context in which it occurs. The ontology would establish a flexible base language to facilitate standardized descriptions of these behaviors for researchers and public health professionals. 1. Introduction Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that regular physical activity (PA) is truly a “medicine” with proven efficacy to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with chronic disease [1]. Being physically active is a major contributor to one’s overall physical and mental well-being [2]. The literature indicates that PA is influenced by a large group of factors, including, environmental, social, psychological, and cultural ones [3–6]. However, methods are not available to systematically study the complex interactions that influence PA and sedentary behavior (SB). To advance public health research, it is important to develop more robust methodologies. Measuring PA and characterizing the context under which the PA occurs are a challenging task. A number of studies have evaluated PA patterns with objective activity monitors, but few studies have examined contextual variation in PA and sedentary activity [7–9]. Recent research efforts have sought to overcome these limitations, and a number of different instruments have been used: daily logs; diaries; questionnaires; direct observation. Different areas are needed to tackle the global pandemic of physical inactivity because multidisciplinary work are essential [10]. Moreover, as Hallal et al. [11] stated, “technological advancements that nudge us towards physical inactivity make it urgently necessary to take actions. More of the same (in terms of research and practice) will not be enough.” The challenge is to turn these technological advancements from only user friendly to “health friendly.” More recently, solutions based on global positioning system, (GPS) geographical information system, (GIS)
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