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Conference Agenda

Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).

Daily Overview

Session

Union3_2: Abstract presentations: Designing Health-Promoting Environments: Green Spaces, Active Mobility and Physical Activity
Location: Grand Hotel Union
Session Chair: Urška Ličen

Presentation 5

12:05pm - 12:15pm

Is ebiking exercise or cheating? An experimental study estimating minutes of moderate physical activity.

Anna Barrero¹, Aoife O’Shea², Megan Fraser², Louise Foley¹, James Green¹

1: Physical Activity for Health Research Centre, Health Research Institute, University of Limerick, Ireland; 2: University of Limerick, Ireland

Background: E-bikes offer a co-beneficial travel solution, providing both health and environmental benefits compared to private car use. However, there is ongoing debate about whether e-biking qualifies as moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) due to variable assistance from a battery-powered motor.

Objectives: This study investigates the effects of ebike power settings and cycling intensity on minutes of MVPA.

Methods: Adult participants completed six 5km e-biking trials on the same route, with a factorial combination of ebike power setting (Off/Mid/Full) and cycling intensity (Natural/Brisk). Heart rate while cycling was measured by a Polar HR monitor.Using either age-estimated or lab-measured maximum heart rate, minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was calculated for each 5km trip.

Results: Nineteen participants completed 114 trips, with six trips excluded for data quality issues. Cycling 5km with the ebike motor switched off led to participants completing 14 minutes of MVPA on average, significantly higher than the 11 minutes with the motor set to either mid or full power. Cycling briskly led to participants completing around 90 seconds more MVPA over 5km (and notably more minutes of vigorous physical activity).

Conclusions: Despite small differences in the total number of minutes of MVPA over 5km, cycling with electrical assistance still produced meaningful amounts of physical activity. E-biking offers a flexible means to achieve MVPA, benefiting both commuting and overall physical activity, especially compared to sedentary transportation modes like car journeys.