Highlights
- •There are considerable differences between the estimates of physical activity derived from the PAFQ and an accelerometer.
- •Compared with accelerometry, the PAFQ overestimated total, light, moderate and vigorous physical activity, and underestimated sedentary behaviour.
- •The differences between the PAFQ and accelerometry were influenced by gender and age, but not by body mass index.
Abstract
Objective
The Physical Activity Frequency Questionnaire (PAFQ) has been used in several studies,
but its validation dates from 1998. We compared the PAFQ with accelerometry data for
measuring levels of physical activity (PA) in a middle-aged and elderly population.
Design
Cross-sectional analysis was conducted with a sample of 1752 adults from the general
population (50.7% female, age range 45.2–87.1 years) living in Switzerland. Participants
completed the PAFQ and wore a wrist-worn accelerometer for 14 consecutive days. Spearman
correlation, Lin’s concordance coefficient and Bland-Altman plots were performed to
compare PAFQ and accelerometry data.
Results
Compared with the accelerometer, the PAFQ overestimated total, light, moderate and
vigorous activity by a median [interquartile range] of 143 [34.5; 249], 72 [12; 141],
23 [−46; 100] and 13 [−1; 41] minutes/day, respectively, and underestimated sedentary
behaviour by 123 [14; 238] minutes/day. Spearman’s correlation coefficients ranged
from 0.171 for vigorous PA and 0.387 for total PA and sedentary behaviour. Lin’s concordance
coefficients ranged from 0.044 for vigorous PA and 0.254 for moderate to vigorous
PA. The difference between PAFQ and accelerometer results increased with increasing
time spent at each activity level.
Conclusion
There is limited agreement between estimates of activity obtained by PAFQ and those
obtained from accelerometers, suggesting that these tools measure activity differently.
Although there is some degree of comparability, they should be considered as complementary
tools to obtain comprehensive information on both individual and population activity
levels.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 24, 2019
Accepted:
August 12,
2019
Received in revised form:
June 28,
2019
Received:
April 5,
2019
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
