Abstract
BackgroundComprehensive assessment of sedentary behavior (SB) and physical activity (PA), including transport-related activities (TRA), is required to design innovative PA promotion strategies. There are few validated instruments that simultaneously assess the different components of human movement according to their context of practice (e.g. work, transport, leisure). We examined test-retest reliability and validity of the Sedentary, Transportation and Activity Questionnaire (STAQ), a newly developed questionnaire dedicated to assessing context-specific SB, TRA and PA.MethodsNinety six subjects (51 women) kept a contextualized activity-logbook and wore a hip accelerometer (Actigraph GT3X + TM) for a 7-day or 14-day period, at the end of which they completed the STAQ. Activity-energy expenditure was measured in a subgroup of 45 subjects using the double labeled water (DLW) method. Test-retest reliability was assessed using intra-class-coefficients (ICC) in a subgroup of 32 subjects who filled the questionnaire twice one month apart. Accelerometry was annotated using the logbook to obtain total and context-specific objective estimates of SB. Spearman correlations, Bland-Altman plots and ICC were used to analyze validity with logbook, accelerometry and DLW data validity criteria.ResultsTest-retest reliability was fair for total sitting time (ICC = 0.52), good to excellent for work sitting time (ICC = 0.71), transport-related walking (ICC = 0.61) and car use (ICC = 0.67), and leisure screen-related SB (ICC = 0.64-0.79), but poor for total sitting time during leisure and transport-related contexts. For validity, compared to accelerometry, significant correlations were found for STAQ estimates of total (r = 0.54) and context-specific sitting times with stronger correlations for work sitting time (r = 0.88), and screen times (TV/DVD viewing: r = 0.46; other screens: r = 0.42) than for transport (r = 0.35) or leisure-related sitting-times (r = 0.19). Compared to contextualized logbook, STAQ estimates of TRA was higher for car (r = 0.65) than for active transport (r = 0.41). The questionnaire generally overestimated work- and leisure-related SB and sitting times, while it underestimated total and transport-related sitting times.ConclusionsThe STAQ showed acceptable reliability and a good ranking validity for assessment of context-specific SB and TRA. This instrument appears as a useful tool to study SB, TRA and PA in context in adults.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3412-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Comprehensive assessment of sedentary behavior (SB) and physical activity (PA), including transportrelated activities (TRA), is required to design innovative PA promotion strategies
The STAQ is based on the French version of the Recent Physical Activity Questionnaire (RPAQ) that has been shown to be a valid instrument for ranking individuals according to their activity energy expenditure (AEE) and time spent at vigorous-intensity PA, but to produce a weaker assessment of time spent at light-tomoderate-intensity PA [24, 25], and in which questions have been modified or added to address different context-specific SB and TRA
STAQ estimates of TRA was higher for car (r = 0.65) than for active transport (r = 0.41)
Summary
Comprehensive assessment of sedentary behavior (SB) and physical activity (PA), including transportrelated activities (TRA), is required to design innovative PA promotion strategies. Several recent studies have suggested beneficial associations between active transportation and cardiometabolic risk [7,8,9], pointing out the critical role of transport-related activities (TRA) in movement behavior. In this context, an integrated and comprehensive approach of SB and PA to better measure, understand and promote human movement as a whole, is required to implement successful interventions for the promotion of a healthy lifestyle [10,11,12,13]. There is a need of measurement tools that accurately, as well as concurrently, assess SB and TRA according to the context (e.g. work, transport, domestic life, leisure,) in which daily activities are performed
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