A systematic review of the validity, reliability, and feasibility of measurement tools used to assess the physical activity and sedentary behaviour of pre-school aged children
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Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) of pre-school aged children are associated with important health and developmental outcomes. Accurate measurement of these behaviours in young children is critical for research and practice in this area. The aim of this review was to examine the validity, reliability, and feasibility of measurement tools used to assess PA and SB of pre-school aged children.
Searches of electronic databases, and manual searching, were conducted to identify articles that examined the measurement properties (validity, reliability or feasibility) of measurement tools used to examine PA and/or SB of pre-school aged children (3-7 years old). Following screening, data were extracted and risk of bias assessment completed on all included articles.
A total of 69 articles, describing 75 individual studies were included. Studies assessed measurement tools for PA (n=27), SB (n=5), and both PA and SB (n=43). Outcome measures of PA and SB differed between studies (e.g. moderate to vigorous activity, step count, posture allocation). Most studies examined the measurement properties of one measurement tool only (n=65). Measurement tools examined included: calorimetry, direct observation, combined heart rate and accelerometry, heart rate monitors, accelerometers, pedometers, and proxy report (parent, carer or teacher reported) measures (questionnaires or diaries). Studies most frequently assessed the validity (criterion and convergent) (n=65), face and content validity (n=2), test-retest reliability (n=10) and intra-instrument reliability (n=1) of the measurement tools. Feasibility data was abstracted from 41 studies.
Multiple measurement tools used to measure PA and SB in pre-school aged children showed some degree of validity, reliability and feasibility, but often for different purposes. Accelerometers, including the Actigraph (in particular GT3X versions), Actical, ActivPAL and Fitbit (Flex and Zip), and proxy reported measurement tools used in combination may be useful for a range of outcome measures, to measure intensity alongside contextual information.
Searches of electronic databases, and manual searching, were conducted to identify articles that examined the measurement properties (validity, reliability or feasibility) of measurement tools used to examine PA and/or SB of pre-school aged children (3-7 years old). Following screening, data were extracted and risk of bias assessment completed on all included articles.
A total of 69 articles, describing 75 individual studies were included. Studies assessed measurement tools for PA (n=27), SB (n=5), and both PA and SB (n=43). Outcome measures of PA and SB differed between studies (e.g. moderate to vigorous activity, step count, posture allocation). Most studies examined the measurement properties of one measurement tool only (n=65). Measurement tools examined included: calorimetry, direct observation, combined heart rate and accelerometry, heart rate monitors, accelerometers, pedometers, and proxy report (parent, carer or teacher reported) measures (questionnaires or diaries). Studies most frequently assessed the validity (criterion and convergent) (n=65), face and content validity (n=2), test-retest reliability (n=10) and intra-instrument reliability (n=1) of the measurement tools. Feasibility data was abstracted from 41 studies.
Multiple measurement tools used to measure PA and SB in pre-school aged children showed some degree of validity, reliability and feasibility, but often for different purposes. Accelerometers, including the Actigraph (in particular GT3X versions), Actical, ActivPAL and Fitbit (Flex and Zip), and proxy reported measurement tools used in combination may be useful for a range of outcome measures, to measure intensity alongside contextual information.
Date Issued
2021-11-04
Date Acceptance
2021-05-01
Citation
International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 2021, 18 (141), pp.1-28
ISSN
1479-5868
Publisher
BioMed Central
Start Page
1
End Page
28
Journal / Book Title
International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
Volume
18
Issue
141
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s). 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,
which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give
appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if
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licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain
permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the
data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give
appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if
changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons
licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons
licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain
permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the
data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
License URL
Identifier
https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12966-021-01132-9
Subjects
Feasibility
Measurement
Physical activity
Pre-school
Reliability
Sedentary behaviour
Validity
Accelerometry
Child
Child, Preschool
Exercise
Feasibility Studies
Humans
Reproducibility of Results
Sedentary Behavior
11 Medical and Health Sciences
13 Education
Public Health
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-11-04