Low and middle-income countries in Asia and Africa have been witnessing a process of rural transformation, characterised by rising agricultural productivity, commercialisation of agriculture, improved infrastructure and access to services, over several decades. However, there is little empirical evidence on how this transformation process has affected the patterns and intensity of physical activity and time use in rural livelihoods. The lack of empirical evidence can be attributed to the constraints in accurate measurement of physical activity and energy expenditure in the context of free-living populations. Using wearable accelerometry devices, we develop robust energy expenditure profiles for men and women in rural households for two case studies in India and Ghana. An innovative feature of this study is the integration of data on energy expenditure (derived from accelerometers) with data on time-use, which has hitherto not been feasible in observational studies of rural populations. Using the data on physical activity, energy expenditure and time use from the case studies, we examine the impact of drudgery reduction- the substitution of less intense for more intense activities - on energy requirements for men and women in rural households. Our results show that drudgery reduction can have large effects on human energy (calorie) requirements, with an hour of drudgery reduction reducing energy requirements by 11-22 % for men and 13-17 % for women in Ghana and India. There are significant gender differences in energy expenditure patterns and drudgery reduction effects vary by socio-demographic characteristics and endowments of households. Our results suggest that drudgery reduction can offer rural households an important route to improved nutritional status. At the same time, drudgery reduction can lead to increased incidence of overweight and obesity for some segments of the population. The design of development interventions needs to explicitly consider the effects on nutrition and well-being through the energy expenditure dimension.

中文翻译：

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减少农村生计中的劳动强度，体力活动和能源需求。

在过去的几十年中，亚洲和非洲的低收入和中等收入国家目睹了农村转型的过程，其特征是农业生产率提高，农业商业化，基础设施改善和服务获得。但是，很少有经验证据可以证明这种转变过程如何影响了农村生计中体育活动和时间使用的方式和强度。缺乏经验证据可归因于在自由生活人口的情况下精确测量身体活动和能量消耗的限制。使用可穿戴式加速度计设备，我们针对印度和加纳的两个案例研究，为农村家庭的男女开发了可靠的能源消耗曲线。这项研究的一个创新特征是将能源消耗的数据（来自加速度计）与时间使用的数据进行整合，这在农村人口的观察研究中迄今为止是不可行的。使用案例研究中有关体育活动，能源消耗和时间使用的数据，我们研究了减少劳累的做法-用强度较低的锻炼代替强度较高的活动-对农村家庭男女能源需求的影响。我们的研究结果表明，减少加班对人的能量（卡路里）需求有很大的影响，加纳和印度，减少一小时的拉力会使男性的能源需求减少11-22％，女性减少13-17％。能源支出方式中存在明显的性别差异，减少苦工的效果因社会人口统计学特征和家庭end赋而异。我们的结果表明，减少草皮可以为农村家庭提供改善营养状况的重要途径。同时，减少劳动量会使某些人群的超重和肥胖发生率增加。发展干预措施的设计需要通过能源支出维度明确考虑对营养和福祉的影响。减少劳动强度会导致某些人群的超重和肥胖发生率增加。发展干预措施的设计需要通过能源支出维度明确考虑对营养和福祉的影响。减少劳动强度会导致某些人群的超重和肥胖发生率增加。发展干预措施的设计需要通过能源支出维度明确考虑对营养和福祉的影响。