Concurrent validity of a weight-bearing activity questionnaire in prepubertal and pubertal girls and boys.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current validity of an interviewer-administered physical activity questionnaire against measurement of physical activity from vertical body accelerometer movements in prepubertal and pubertal children.


METHODS
The Weight Bearing Activity Questionnaire for Kids (WBAQK) is an interviewer-administered questionnaire with a recall over 7 days and developed to assess weight-bearing activity in pre-pubertal and pubertal children. The Caltrac(TM) accelerometer was worn for 4-5 days (including 1 weekend day). Thirty-seven schoolgirls and 35 schoolboys participated, with a mean age of 11.2 0.3 years and 12.1 0.2 years, respectively.


RESULTS
Weight-Bearing Score (WBS) and Metabolic Score (MS) derived from the WBAQK were significantly and positively related to the score of the Caltrac(TM). Weight-Bearing Score showed higher correlations in both boys (0.59) and girls (0.53) and slightly better compared to MS (0.54 and 0.35). The classification of boys and girls into high and low activity groups resulted also in a better agreement of WBS (71-72%) than of MS (60-67%) with Caltrac(TM).


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that the amount of weight-bearing activity can be estimated with the interviewer-administered WBAQK in boys and girls between 8 and 14 years of age.
de Ridder
C M
CM
Endocrinology, Reproduction and Metabolism Institute (EVM), VUMC Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 7, 1081 MB Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Kemper
H C G
HC
Bertens
M J M
MJ
van Gameren
A C L
AC
Ras
E
E
Voogd
J
J
Delemarre van der Waal
H A
HA
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017678:Sex Distribution; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016474:Weight-Bearing / Q000502:physiology*