Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Dec;12(12):1551-7.
doi: 10.1123/jpah.2014-0278. Epub 2015 Feb 24.

Objective vs. Self-report Sedentary Behavior in Overweight and Obese Young Adults

Bethany Barone Gibbs  1 , Wendy C King, Kelliann K Davis, Amy D Rickman, Renee J Rogers, Abdus Wahed, Steven H Belle, John Jakicic
Affiliations

Objective vs. Self-report Sedentary Behavior in Overweight and Obese Young Adults

Bethany Barone Gibbs et al. J Phys Act Health. 2015 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Sedentary behavior (SED) has been measured almost exclusively by self-reported total SED or television time in longitudinal studies. This manuscript aimed to compare self-reported vs. objectively measured SED.

Methods: Among overweight and obese young adults enrolled in a weight loss trial, baseline SED was assessed by 3 methods: 1) a questionnaire assessing 8 common SEDs (SEDQ), 2) 1 question assessing SED from the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (SEDGPAQ), and 3) a monitor worn on the arm (SEDOBJ). In addition, television time (SEDTV) was isolated from the SEDQ. SED measures were compared using Spearman's correlations, signed-rank tests, and Bland-Altman plots.

Results: In 448 participants, SEDQ and SEDGPAQ were only weakly associated with SEDOBJ (rs = 0.21; P < .001, rs = 0.32; P < .001, respectively). Compared with SEDOBJ, SEDQ more often overestimated SEDOBJ (median difference: 1.1 hours/day; P < .001), while SEDGPAQ more often underestimated SEDOBJ (median difference: -0.7 hours/day; P < .001). The correlation between SEDTV and SEDOBJ was not significantly different from 0 (rs = 0.08; P = .08).

Conclusions: SEDQ and SEDGPAQ were weakly correlated with, and significantly different from, SEDOBJ in overweight and obese young adults. SEDTV was not related to SEDOBJ. The poor associations of self-reported and objectively measured SED could affect interpretation and comparison across studies relating SED to adverse health outcomes.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author’s declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The difference between self-reported [(A) the Sedentary Behavior Questionnaire, (B) television (TV) time from the Sedentary Behavior Questionnaire, and (C) the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ)] and objectively-measured sedentary hours/day is plotted against the average of objectively-measured and self-reported sedentary hours/day. Horizontal lines are plotted at the line of equality (0), representing no difference between methods, and at the limits which include 95% of the observed data.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Sedentary Behaviour Research N. Letter to the editor: standardized use of the terms “sedentary” and “sedentary behaviours”. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2012;37(3):540–542. - PubMed
    1. Wilmot EG, Edwardson CL, Achana FA, et al. Sedentary time in adults and the association with diabetes, cardiovascular disease and death: systematic review and meta-analysis. Diabetologia. 2012;55(11):2895–2905. - PubMed
    1. Thorp AA, Owen N, Neuhaus M, Dunstan DW. Sedentary behaviors and subsequent health outcomes in adults a systematic review of longitudinal studies, 1996–2011. Am J Prev Med. 2011;41(2):207–215. - PubMed
    1. Bauman A, Chau JY, Ding D, Bennie J. Too Much Sitting and Cardio-metabolic Risk: An Update on the Epidemiologic Evidence. Curr Cardiovasc Risk Rep. 2013;7:293–298.
    1. Chau JY, Grunseit AC, Chey T, et al. Daily sitting time and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis. PloS one. 2013;8(11):e80000. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types