Validation and comparison of eight physical activity questionnaires

Area of Science:

• Exercise Physiology
• Nutritional Science
• Biostatistics

Background:

• Accurate assessment of physical activity is crucial for understanding energy balance.
• Existing physical activity questionnaires lack comprehensive validation, especially concerning energy expenditure.
• Reliable tools are needed to measure physical activity in free-living conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate commonly used physical activity questionnaires against measured energy balance parameters.
• To assess the correlation between questionnaire-derived physical activity estimates and measured caloric intake and energy expenditure.
• To identify questionnaires that provide the most accurate group estimates of total energy expenditure.

Main Methods:

• Twenty-one healthy men (28-55 years) participated in a controlled feeding study.
• Eight physical activity questionnaires were administered.
• Questionnaire data were compared with measured caloric intake and resting energy expenditure during stable body weight.

Main Results:

• Questionnaire-derived physical activity indices generally correlated with energy intake.
• Inter-questionnaire correlations were moderate (median r = 0.53).
• Correlations with energy intake were higher than with non-resting energy expenditure.
• The Five-City Project questionnaire provided the closest estimate of total caloric expenditure (96% of intake).

Conclusions:

• While individual physical activity estimates may be suboptimal, most evaluated questionnaires offer reasonable group means.
• The Five-City Project questionnaire demonstrated superior accuracy in estimating total energy expenditure.
• Further validation is needed for precise individual energy balance assessment using questionnaires.