Domain-Specific Self-Reported and Objectively Measured Physical Activity in Children

Abstract

Little is known about the extent that different domains contribute to total sedentary (SED), light (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). We aimed to identify domain-specific physical activity (PA) patterns in school-aged children who were assessed by questionnaire and accelerometry. For the study, 298 German school children and adolescents aged 6–17 years wore an accelerometer for one week and completed a PA recall-questionnaire for the same period. Spearman coefficients (r) were used to evaluate the agreement between self-reported and objectively measured PA in five domains (transport, school hours, physical education, leisure-time, organized sports activities). School hours mainly contributed to the total objectively measured SED, LPA and MVPA (55%, 53% and 46%, respectively), whilst sports activities contributed only 24% to total MVPA. Compared to accelerometry, the proportion of self-reported LPA and MVPA during school hours was substantially underestimated but overestimated during leisure-time. The agreement of self-reported and objectively measured PA was low for total LPA (r = 0.09, 95% CI (confidence interval): −0.03–0.20) and total MVPA (r = 0.21, 95% CI: 0.10–0.32), while moderate agreement was only found for total SED (r = 0.44, 95% CI: 0.34–0.53), LPA during transport (r = 0.59; 95% CI: 0.49–0.67) and MVPA during organized sports activities (r = 0.54; 95% CI: 0.38–0.67). Since school hours mainly contribute to total SED, LPA and MVPA and self-reported LPA and MVPA during school were importantly underestimated compared to objectively measured LPA and MVPA, the application of objective measurements is compulsory to characterize the entire activity pattern of school-aged children.

Physical activity levels and sedentary time during school hours of 6th-grade girls in Germany

“…Moreover, three-quarters of school time was spent in ST. As other studies have shown, the school setting accounts for high ST (Bailey et al 2012;Smith et al 2016;Sprengeler et al 2017), and girls in this study spent 3 h and 30 min sedentary during lesson hours. Huber and Köppel (2017) reported even 4.9 h of school-related ST across all grades.…”

Changes in physical activity and sedentary time during adolescence: Gender differences during weekdays and weekend days

“…Despite its limitations in the accurate recording of swimming and cycling, the use of accelerometers is preferable compared with that of questionnaires due to the poor validity of questionnaires, especially in the pediatric population 41 . Accelerometers also enable more accurate comparisons of different time segments of the day because the activities during some parts of the day may be underestimated, and others overestimated, by self‐report 42 …”

Sports participation and sports injuries in Dutch boys with haemophilia

“…This was a retrospective study which analyzed data routinely provided by children with hemophilia and their parents over their last three clinic visits. The lack of a standardized collection method could have led to information bias in the data and potential overestimation of sports participation and underestimation of sports injuries 36,37 . Although no gold standard for self‐reporting of sports participation exists, using a standardized questionnaire as the Modifiable Activities Questionnaire (MAQ) 38,39 might be one way of improving sports participation assessment.…”