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The dilemma of physical activity questionnaires: Fitter people are less prone to over reporting

Physical activity questionnaires (PAQs) are a popular method of monitoring physical activity, although their validity is usually low. Descriptions of physical activity levels in questionnaires usually rely on physical responses to physical activity. Therefore, we hypothesised that the validity of PA...

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Autores principales: Meh, Kaja, Sember, Vedrana, Sorić, Maroje, Vähä-Ypyä, Henri, Rocha, Paulo, Jurak, Gregor
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10468079/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37647304
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285357
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author Meh, Kaja
Sember, Vedrana
Sorić, Maroje
Vähä-Ypyä, Henri
Rocha, Paulo
Jurak, Gregor
author_facet Meh, Kaja
Sember, Vedrana
Sorić, Maroje
Vähä-Ypyä, Henri
Rocha, Paulo
Jurak, Gregor
author_sort Meh, Kaja
collection PubMed
description Physical activity questionnaires (PAQs) are a popular method of monitoring physical activity, although their validity is usually low. Descriptions of physical activity levels in questionnaires usually rely on physical responses to physical activity. Therefore, we hypothesised that the validity of PAQs would be higher in the more physically fit group of participants. To test this, we conducted a validation study with 179 adults whom we divided into three fitness groups based on their cardiovascular fitness and age. Participants were measured for one week using the UKK RM42 accelerometer and self-reported their physical activity using IPAQ-SF, GPAQ, and EHIS-PAQ. We analysed the differences between fitness groups in terms of validity for each PAQ using ANOVA. We also performed an equivalence testing to compare the data obtained with the PAQs and the accelerometers. The results showed a significant trend toward higher validity for moderate to vigorous physical activity from the low to high fitness group as assessed by GPAQ and IPAQ-SF (low, intermediate and high fitness group: 0.06–0.21; 0.26–0.29; 0.40, respectively). The equivalence testing showed that all fitness groups overestimated their physical activity and underestimated their sedentary behaviour, with the high fitness group overestimating their physical activity the least. However, EHIS-PAQ was found to agree best with accelerometer data in assessing moderate to vigorous physical activity, regardless of fitness group, and had a validity greater than 0.4 for all fitness groups. In conclusion, we confirmed that when using PAQs describing physical responses to physical activity, participants’ fitness should be considered in the interpretation, especially when comparing results internationally.
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spelling pubmed-104680792023-08-31 The dilemma of physical activity questionnaires: Fitter people are less prone to over reporting Meh, Kaja Sember, Vedrana Sorić, Maroje Vähä-Ypyä, Henri Rocha, Paulo Jurak, Gregor PLoS One Research Article Physical activity questionnaires (PAQs) are a popular method of monitoring physical activity, although their validity is usually low. Descriptions of physical activity levels in questionnaires usually rely on physical responses to physical activity. Therefore, we hypothesised that the validity of PAQs would be higher in the more physically fit group of participants. To test this, we conducted a validation study with 179 adults whom we divided into three fitness groups based on their cardiovascular fitness and age. Participants were measured for one week using the UKK RM42 accelerometer and self-reported their physical activity using IPAQ-SF, GPAQ, and EHIS-PAQ. We analysed the differences between fitness groups in terms of validity for each PAQ using ANOVA. We also performed an equivalence testing to compare the data obtained with the PAQs and the accelerometers. The results showed a significant trend toward higher validity for moderate to vigorous physical activity from the low to high fitness group as assessed by GPAQ and IPAQ-SF (low, intermediate and high fitness group: 0.06–0.21; 0.26–0.29; 0.40, respectively). The equivalence testing showed that all fitness groups overestimated their physical activity and underestimated their sedentary behaviour, with the high fitness group overestimating their physical activity the least. However, EHIS-PAQ was found to agree best with accelerometer data in assessing moderate to vigorous physical activity, regardless of fitness group, and had a validity greater than 0.4 for all fitness groups. In conclusion, we confirmed that when using PAQs describing physical responses to physical activity, participants’ fitness should be considered in the interpretation, especially when comparing results internationally. Public Library of Science 2023-08-30 /pmc/articles/PMC10468079/ /pubmed/37647304 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285357 Text en © 2023 Meh et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Meh, Kaja
Sember, Vedrana
Sorić, Maroje
Vähä-Ypyä, Henri
Rocha, Paulo
Jurak, Gregor
The dilemma of physical activity questionnaires: Fitter people are less prone to over reporting
title The dilemma of physical activity questionnaires: Fitter people are less prone to over reporting
title_full The dilemma of physical activity questionnaires: Fitter people are less prone to over reporting
title_fullStr The dilemma of physical activity questionnaires: Fitter people are less prone to over reporting
title_full_unstemmed The dilemma of physical activity questionnaires: Fitter people are less prone to over reporting
title_short The dilemma of physical activity questionnaires: Fitter people are less prone to over reporting
title_sort dilemma of physical activity questionnaires: fitter people are less prone to over reporting
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10468079/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37647304
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285357
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