Hi Patrick,

How about International physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ) and Global physical activity questionnaire (GPAQ)....... MAny studies present on their validation and reliability...... Both measure physcial activity and sedentary/sitting time over an entire week (7-days)

Regards

Saima

Patrick, if you want to avoid recall bias (and that is unavoidable with questionnaires even though they may be validated) to my opinion you would be better off using a body-worn sensor (accelerometer or IMU) that records different postures and activities. At least that is the approach we are taking in our patient groups.

Yes, I agree with Dieter. We have also used an accelerometer in our particpants.

cheers

Saima 

Dear Patrick,

this link might be useful: http://www.sedentarybehaviour.org/sedentary-behaviour-questionnaires/

However, as far as I am aware, validity of the previously mentioned questionnaires (GPAQ, IPAQ) has only been demonstrated for physical activity and not (extensively) for sedentary behaviour. For example, the IPAQ has only two questions addressing sitting time (none for overall sedentary behaviour), with one item asking for time spent sitting during the last seven days on a weekday and another asking for sitting time on a weekend day (each in hours and minutes). From my point of view, data from those questions are, at best, questionable.

Hence, I strongly agree with Dieter on the objective measurement of sedentary behaviour to take the risk of recall bias (and social desirability to a certain degree) out of the assessment. The papers attached might be of help in your decision which method may yield the appropriate data to answer your research question.

Bests,

Carsten

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23045206

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22749939

If you decide to go down the route of using accelerometry, we just published a review paper outlining measurement issues (we also present issues with other methods within the same paper): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281207420_Issues_and_Challenges_in_Sedentary_Behavior_Measurement

Article Issues and Challenges in Sedentary Behavior Measurement

Thank you all for your feedback and support.  We recognize the volume of evidence that points to accelerometry as the gold standard measurement, but it simply is not feasible in the clinical setting through which we test and recruit patients long-term.  For this reason, we are looking for a short- to moderate-response questionnaire that we can pilot test and then include as a standard measurement within our population (chronic liver disease).

It appears that the short sedentary portions of the IPAQ and GPAQ demonstrate stronger validity and reliability when compared to the longer, more sedentary-specific questionnaires.  Is there a way to reconcile or better understand these findings?