Validity and responsiveness to change of the Active Australia Survey according to gender, age, BMI, education, and physical activity level and awareness

Abstract

Background This study aimed to investigate the validity of the Active Australia Survey across different subgroups and its responsiveness to change, as few previous studies have examined this. Methods The Active Australia Survey was validated against the ActiGraph as an objective measure of physical activity. Participants ( n = 465) wore the ActiGraph for 7 days and subsequently completed the Active Australia Survey. Moderate activity, vigorous activity and total moderate and vigorous physical activity were compared using Spearman rank-order correlations. Changes in physical activity between baseline and 3-month assessments were correlated to examine responsiveness to change. The data were stratified to assess outcomes according to different subgroups (e.g., gender, age, weight, activity levels). Results With regards to the validity, a significant correlation of ρ = 0.19 was found for moderate physical activity, ρ = 0.33 for vigorous physical activity and ρ = 0.23 for moderate and vigorous physical activity combined. For vigorous physical activity correlations were higher than 0.3 for most subgroups, whereas they were only higher than 0.3 in those with a healthy weight for the other activity outcomes. With regards to responsiveness to change, a correlation of ρ = 0.32 was found for moderate physical activity, ρ = 0.19 for vigorous physical activity and ρ = 0.35 for moderate and vigorous physical activity combined. For moderate and vigorous activity combined correlations were higher than 0.4 for several subgroups, but never for vigorous physical activity. Conclusions Little evidence for the validity of Active Australia Survey was found, although the responsiveness to change was acceptable for several subgroups. Findings from studies using the Active Australia Survey should be interpreted with caution. Trial registration World Health Organisation Universal Trial Number: U111–1119-1755. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12611000157976 . Registration date: 8 March 2011.

Responsiveness of the single item measure to detect change in physical activity

“…If PA self-report measures are to be used in evaluation research or for PA surveillance, it is essential that they provide valid assessments of change [3,19,21,22]. In the last 10 years studies have begun to assess the validity of self-report measures to detect change in MVPA using accelerometer data as the reference measurement [19,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. In one of the earliest of these studies, moderate agreement (r = 0.52) was reported between the 16-item Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ) [30] and accelerometer data when the extent of change in physical activity was compared over two 7-day periods [23].…”

“…Stronger evidence of responsiveness has emerged from Vandelanotte et al [29] who examined the responsiveness of the 8-item Active Australia Survey [33] to detect change in PA against accelerometer data and reported a moderate correlation (r = 0.36) between residual scores on the measure and accelerometer data for change in MVPA over a 3-month period. Although the investigators raised concerns about the overall validity of the measure, they concluded that the Active Australia Survey was responsive to change in some population subgroups [29]. It has been noted that correlational analyses are not the preferred method for assessing responsiveness of PA measures for detecting change [25].…”

Questionnaire choice affects the prevalence of recommended physical activity: an online survey comparing four measuring instruments within the same sample

“…Due to the recruitment strategy (online channels of the German Sport University Cologne and publication on SurveyCircle), it is likely that mainly younger, educated and health-oriented people accessed the online survey. However, due to the homogeneity of this positive sample, it could be assumed that the chance of correctly answered questionnaires was increased [76][77][78][79]. Future studies with more heterogeneous samples could consider the influence of different variables (e.g.…”

Assessing physical activity in people with mental illness: 23-country reliability and validity of the simple physical activity questionnaire (SIMPAQ)

“…In physical activity research, correlation coefficients between self-report and objective measures of physical activity of 0.3 are often reported as acceptable evidence of validity [35][36][37][38][39]. This limited shared variance reflects the challenges associated with both self-report questionnaires and accelerometers when assessing physical activity in the general population.…”