PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF AN OBSERVATION SYSTEM FOR RECORDING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN CHILDREN
✍ Scribed by Tracy A. Larson; Matthew P. Normand; Kristin M. Hustyi
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2011
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 126 KB
- Volume
- 26
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1072-0847
- DOI
- 10.1002/bin.332
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Although mechanical means of measuring physical activity are available, they cannot provide information about the context in which such activity occurs. Therefore, direct-observation systems remain essential tools for studying physical activity. The Observational System for Recording Physical Activity in Children (OSRAC) is a direct-observation system for recording physical activity and associated environmental variables. We evaluated the concurrent validity of the OSRAC physical activity codes with two types of mechanical measures of physical activity: pedometers and heart-rate monitors. The results indicate that heart rates and step totals generally covaried with the OSRAC activity-level codes, suggesting that these codes are valid measures of physical activity in preschool children.