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Measures of physical activity and their correlates: The Swedish National March Cohort

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Abstract

We compared the results of self-estimates of physical activity obtained with a novel instrument (the Energy Expenditure Questionnaire, EEQ) to those obtained from questions typically asked in epidemiological investigations (reference method) in a cohort of 42,150 Swedish men and women, aged 18–94. In the EEQ, participants were asked to report total physical activity by estimating the total time during a typical day and night spent on different physical activity intensity levels from the lowest (corresponding to lying in bed, 0.9 Metabolic Energy Turnover; MET) to the highest, (exceeding the intensity of to shovelling snow by hand, i.e., >6 MET). As a comparison, they also estimated hours per week devoted to household chores, commuting and leisure time physical activities classified as; light, moderate and heavy. The average physical activity estimated with the EEQ was 1.36 MET or 32.6 METh/day or 2,341 kcal/day. In comparison, physical activity estimated with the reference method represented no more than 17% of this amount. The Spearman’s correlation coefficient between the two measures was 0.26. Using EEQ, men reported significantly more physical activity than women (mean = 36.3 vs. 30.6 METh/day). Body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25, education ≥ 12 years, and age ≥ 60 years were significantly associated with lower physical activity. Questions focusing on leisure time exercise and a few other selected activities provide estimates of activity that correlate poorly with self-reported total energy output from all physical activity and inactivity. Investigators need to be more explicit about which component of activity they investigate.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to express sincere gratitude to Cancerfonden and volunteers who worked with the National March. We also would like to thank ICA AB and Ericsson for financial support and Statistics Sweden for scanning the questionnaires.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Clinical Epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet, T2, 171 76, Stockholm, Sweden

    Ylva Trolle Lagerros

  2. Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Rino Bellocco, Hans-Olov Adami & Olof Nyrén

  3. Department of Statistics, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Rino Bellocco

  4. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Hans-Olov Adami

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  1. Ylva Trolle Lagerros
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Correspondence to Ylva Trolle Lagerros.

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Lagerros, Y.T., Bellocco, R., Adami, HO. et al. Measures of physical activity and their correlates: The Swedish National March Cohort. Eur J Epidemiol 24, 161–169 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-009-9327-x

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