Test-retest reliability of the Twin Cities Walking Survey.
BACKGROUND
The Twin Cities Walking Study measured the associations of built environment versus socioeconomic and psychosocial variables with total physical activity and walking for 716 adults.


METHODS
This article reports on the test-retest reliability of the survey portion of the study. To test the reliability of the study measures, 158 respondents completed measures twice within 1 to 4 weeks. Agreement between participants' responses was measured using Pearson r and Spearman rho, and kappa statistics.


RESULTS
Demographic questions are highly reliable (R>.8). Questions about environmental and social features are typically less reliable (rho range=0.42-0.91). Reliability of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (last 7 days version) was low (rho=0.15 for total activity).


CONCLUSIONS
Much of the survey has acceptable-to-good reliability. The low test-retest reliability points to potential limitations of using a single administration of the IPAQ to characterize habitual physical activity. Implications for sound inference are accordingly complicated.
Forsyth
Ann
A
Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Oakes
J Michael
JM
Schmitz
Kathryn H
KH
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008910:Minnesota; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000295:instrumentation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*