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ARS Home » Plains Area » Houston, Texas » Children's Nutrition Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #366098
Title: Comparing multiple measures of physical activity in African-American adults

Author
item MAMA, SCHEREZADE - Pennsylvania State University
item BHUIYAN, NISHAT - Pennsylvania State University
item LEE, REBECCA - Arizona State University
item BASEN-ENGQUIST, KAREN - Md Anderson Cancer Center
item WETTER, DAVID - University Of Utah
item Thompson, Deborah - Debbe
item MCNEILL, LORNA - Md Anderson Cancer Center

Submitted to: American Journal of Health Behavior
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/24/2019
Publication Date: 9/1/2019
Citation: Mama, S.K., Bhuiyan, N., Lee, R.E., Basen-Engquist, K., Wetter, D.W., Thompson, D.J., McNeill, L.H. 2019. Comparing multiple measures of physical activity in African-American adults. American Journal of Health Behavior. 43(5):877-886. https://doi.org/10.5993/AJHB.43.5.1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5993/AJHB.43.5.1

Interpretive Summary: Physical activity is an essential component of a healthy lifestyle and reduces risk of several chronic diseases. African American adults have low levels of physical activity, placing them at increased risk. Effective ways to assess and monitor their physical activity is needed. Low agreement between self-report and objective assessment of physical activity was found. More work is needed to identify low cost methods for assessing physical activity in diverse populations.

Technical Abstract: We assessed the agreement between self-reported and accelerometer-assessed physical activity (PA) in African-American adults by sex, education, income, and weight status. Participants (N=274) completed the International PA Questionnaire short form (IPAQS), Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) PA questions, and PA Questionnaire (PAQ) and a 7-day accelerometer protocol using a waist-worn ActiGraph GT3X accelerometer. Interrelationships among PA measures were assessed by sociodemographics. Participants consistently reported doing =150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous-intensity PA (MVPA) per week via self-report measures and did 113.5+/-179.4 minutes of accelerometer-assessed MVPA/week. Men self-reported and did more MVPA than women (p<.01). Regardless of sex, there were low correlations between self-report and accelerometer-assessed MVPA (r=.092-.190). Poor agreement existed between self-report and accelerometry for classifying participants as meeting PA recommendations (Cohen Kappa=.054-.136); only half of the participants were classified the same by both self-report and accelerometry. There was generally poor relative agreement between self-report and accelerometer-based assessments of MVPA in this sample of African-American adults. Findings suggest that self-report measures may perform better among African-American women than men, regardless of socioeconomic or weight status.