ASSESSMENT OF HABITUAL PHYSICAL ACTIVITY BY A SEVEN-DAY RECALL IN A COMMUNITY SURVEY AND CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTS

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Abstract
Assessment of habitual physical activity in epidemiologic and health education studies has been difficult A seven-day physical activity recall interview was developed and administered in a community health survey, a randomized clinical trial, and two worksite health promotion programs during 1979–1982. These studies were conducted in several populations in California, Texas, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Energy expenditure estimates from the physical activity recall conformed to expected age- and sex-specific values in the cross-sectional community survey. Estimates of energy expenditure were also congruent with other questions on physical activity and job classification. In a randomized, one-year exercise trial, the physical activity recall detected increases in energy expenditure in the treated group and was positively associated with miles run during training (p < 0.05). Changes in energy expenditure were associated with changes in maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max (r = 0.33, p < 0.05) and body fatness (r =−0.50, p < 0.01) at six months, and in high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (r = 0.31, p < 0.05) and triglyceride (r =−0.41, p < 0.01) at one year. The physical activity recall detected significant (p < 0.01) increases in energy expenditure in treatment groups in two worksite health promotion projects. These data suggest that the physical activity recall provides useful estimates of habitual physical activity for research in epldemiologtc and health education studies.