Measuring Physical Activity for Research

1. Find
three peer-reviewed studies that have
investigated the validity of measuring
physical activity with one of the assessment types used in this project (either
the app/device you used, BPAL, APAR, MAQ, SBAS, or BRFSS). Every study must
have used the same assessment type/instrument. Acceptable measures of PA
include MET∙min, minutes of light/moderate/vigorous PA, steps per day (or other
specified amount of time), heart rate, estimated oxygen uptake (i.e., VO2),
energy expenditure (i.e., kcal), etc. Summarize the following for each study:
a. The purpose of the study. Summarize the
purpose of the study in your own words.
b. The sample characteristics. At minimum,
provide averages, medians, ranges, standard deviations, or percentages, as
appropriate, regarding age, sex, and race of the sample. Statistics regarding
BMI, socioeconomic status, educational attainment, etc. may also be provided
but are not mandatory.
c. Physical activity data collection with the
instrument you chose. Describe in detail how the instrument was used to
collect physical activity data. E.g., How often was data collected? When was
data collected (at what point during the study, what days of the week, what time
of day)? Were the participants given detailed instructions? Was an abbreviated
version of the instrument used or the full version?
d. Criterion measure of physical activity.
How was the validity of the chosen instrument determined? In other words, what
other way of measuring physical activity levels was the instrument compared to
(i.e., what was used as the criterion measure)? Describe this instrument. When
was the data with this other instrument collected? Was data collected with both
instruments at the same time or at different times (hint: The data should be
collected at the same time)?
e. Validity of the instrument. How valid
was the physical activity measuring instrument when compared to the criterion
measure? Report at least one statistic (e.g., correlation coefficient (r),
coefficient of variation (R2), intraclass correlation coefficient
(ICC), mean absolute percent error [MAPE], etc.)
Summarize the overall validity of the
instrument based on the 3 studies. Answer these questions:
1) What
is the instrument supposed to measure and do you think it does measure this
with acceptable validity/accuracy?
2) What
are the strengths of the instrument? Is there any characteristic that makes it
particularly useful or practical?
3) What
are the weaknesses of the instrument?

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