Relative validity and repeatability of a new questionnaire on physical activity

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).

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.

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.

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