Citation

Okuda M, Yoshitake N, Tanaka S, Kunitsugu I, Tan N, Uechi H, Sasaki S, Hobara T. Pediatr. Int. 2011; 53(6): 956-963.

Affiliation

Department of Environmental Safety, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Yamaguchi University, Ube, Japan. Department of Public Health, Graduate School of Medicine, Yamaguchi University, Ube, Japan. Health and Exercise Program, National Institute of Health and Nutrition, Tokyo, Japan. Departments of Exercise and Health Science, and Physical Education, Faculty of Education, Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi, Japan. Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Japan Pediatric Society, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1442-200X.2011.03434.x

PMID

21781224

Abstract

Background:  Self-administered questionnaires about physical activity are useful for collecting data to develop public health policies. However, there is currently no validated physical activity questionnaire for Japanese children and adolescents. In this study, we evaluated the validity and reliability of self-administered, physical activity questionnaires for Japanese students. Methods:  Fifth- and eighth-grade students were asked to complete 2 questionnaires that estimated the intensity and time of moderate-to-vigorous physical activities in which they participated and the frequency and duration spent performing sports activities. Students also wore triaxial accelerometers to compare their actual activity levels to their estimates, which allowed us to investigate the validity and reliability of the questionnaires. Results:  The intensity and time spent performing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity that were estimated from the questionnaire were higher than those measured by accelerometry (9-161% of accelerometry). Questionnaire data were highly correlated with accelerometer data for eighth graders (Spearman's correlation, 0.642 to 0.754), but the correlations were lower for fifth graders (≤0.331). Furthermore, there was higher repeatability in the data collected from eighth graders (intraclass correlation, 0.625 to 0.645) than from fifth graders (0.136 to 0.194). Conclusions:  Questionnaires may be useful in epidemiological studies for ranking physical activity levels of adolescents, such as a confounding factor for other lifestyle surveys, but these surveys are less accurate for younger children.

Language: en