Validity and Reliability of the Daily Activity Behaviours Questionnaire (DABQ) for Assessment of Time Spent in Sleep, Sedentary Behaviour, and Physical Activity

Abstract

Sleep, sedentary behaviour (SB), and physical activity are among key behavioural determinants of health. There is a need to evaluate questionnaires that capture movement behaviours across the full 24-h day. The aim of this study was to examine the measurement properties of the Daily Activity Behaviours Questionnaire (DABQ), a novel questionnaire (with a past seven-day recall period) for estimating the time spent in sleep, SB, light physical activity (LPA), and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) among adults. A sample of 126 adults was recruited. DABQ was administered to the participants on two occasions seven days apart to examine its test-retest reliability. The convergent validity of DABQ estimates was explored against activPAL4 accelerometer/inclinometer estimates. Intraclass correlation coefficients for absolute agreement and consistency between the times spent in sleep, SB, LPA, and MVPA estimated by DABQ in the test and re-test ranged from 0.59 to 0.69. Spearman's correlations between the times spent in sleep, SB, LPA, and MVPA estimated by DABQ and activPAL4 ranged from 0.38 to 0.66. In terms of reliability and validity, DABQ is comparable with existing questionnaires; however, it has an important advantage of enabling a comprehensive assessment of all four 24-h movement behaviours. The measurement properties of DABQ make it suitable for large-scale epidemiological studies on 24-h movement behaviours.

Keywords: 24-h movement behaviours; physical behaviours; time-use composition; time-use epidemiology; time-use questionnaire.

Figure 1

Bland–Altman plots comparing DABQ2 and activPAL4 estimates of (a) sleep duration, (b) time spent in SB, (c) time spent in LPA, and (d) time spent in MVPA. Lines show the mean difference and limits of agreement while shaded areas show their 95% confidence intervals. DABQ2, Daily Activity Behaviours Questionnaire completed on the second occasion; activPAL4, activPAL4 accelerometer/inclinometer; Sleep, sleep duration; SB, time spent in sedentary behaviour; LPA, time spent in light physical activity; MVPA, time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.