Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 26, Issue 1, January 1997, Pages 37-43
Preventive Medicine

Regular Article
Relative Validity and Repeatability of a New Questionnaire on Physical Activity,☆☆

https://doi.org/10.1006/pmed.1996.9995Get rights and content

Abstract

Background.A physical activity questionnaire was developed with the aim to estimate usual individual daily energy expenditure. The questionnaire focused on the number of hours usually spent on various activities. In a pilot study it was tested for repeatability and validity in a population of 126 Dutch adults (64 men, 62 women).

Methods.For assessment of repeatability the questionnaire was administered three times during the course of 1 year. A four-times-repeated 3-day activity diary was used as a reference instrument to evaluate validity.

Results.Differences in mean energy expenditure among repeated administrations of the questionnaire were small and not significant. Spearman's test-retest correlation coefficients for total energy expenditure for men were 0.76 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.63–0.85] and 0.70 (95% CI 0.54–0.81) at 5 and 11 months, respectively, and for women were 0.58 (95% CI 0.36–0.74) and 0.71 (95% CI 0.54–0.82). There was a significant trend showing increasing mean diary energy expenditure for successive tertiles of questionnaire energy expenditure. The correlation between the questionnaire and the diary was 0.66 (95% CI 0.49–0.78) for men and 0.43 (95% CI 0.18–0.63) for women.

Conclusions.It was concluded that this questionnaire is a useful tool for estimating energy expenditure in epidemiological studies.

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This study was supported financially by the Commission of European Communities (Soc 93 102840 05E012).

☆☆

H, J, MontoyeH, CG, KemperW, HM, SarisR, A, Washburn, editors

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To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed. Fax: 31 (0)30 2539011.

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