Many lifestyle-related health problems can be eliminated by simply engaging in more physical activity (PA) on a regular basis. A major issue in assessing PA is the accurate measurement. Both self-reported and device-measured methods have been used and each method has advantages and disadvantages. Although physical activity questionnaire is a frequently used instrument for measuring PA, few studies have reported on its validity among college students. The aim of this study was to report the results of a pilot study to investigate the relationship between self-reported PA and accelerometer-determined PA involving college students.
Method:
Participants consisted of 97 freshmen (29.9% male, 70.1% female) enrolled in a conceptual physical education class in a southern university. PA was measured using a 7-day PA recall questionnaire -- Weekly Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire (LTEQ) and an activity monitor during the first week of class. Participants reported their PA through and wore the activity monitor for a consecutive 7 days. The LTEQ collected estimated times of vigorous (VPA), moderate (MPA) and light (LPA) activity and the data were converted into MET values. The activity monitor collected information about the actual minutes of type of activity. Spearman’s correlation was used to investigate the relationship between measurements of the two instruments.
Analysis/Results:
The activity monitor reported an average of 19.97 ± 13.14 min of VPA, 74.80 ± 25.58 min of MPA and 184.63 ± 78.39 min of LPA. The results indicated a significant positive correlation between the minutes of MPA recorded by the activity monitor and MET scores of self-reported MPA (Spearman’s rho = .241, p <.05). Activity-measured LPA and MET scores of self-reported LPA are also significantly correlated (Spearman’s rho = .241, p <.05).
Conclusions: The significant correlation supported the validity of the self-reported LTEQ measures. However, the magnitudes of the aforementioned correlations were relatively small. More validation studies are needed in the future to enrich our understanding about self-reported PA measures.