Cell Phone-Based Physical Activity Recall for Measuring Physical Activity Awareness and Change in Behavior in Sedentary Adults

Abstract

This study was aimed at evaluating sedentary individuals abilities to recall duration and intensity of moderate physical activity (MPA) before and after an 8-week physical activity intervention. Participants were 41 adults (35 female and 6 male) aged 18-40 years, enrolled in the Tailored Intervention Promoting Physical Activity project, were analyzed through photo recall of physical activity, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF), and an ActiGraph accelerometer. Paired t-tests were performed to find the mean differences between ActiGraph and self-reported IPAQ-SF MPA before and after photo recall for both pre and post-intervention measurements. The mean differences found between ActiGraph and IPAQ-estimated MPA minutes were not significant (p > 0.05), although ActiGraph minutes were observed to be less than self-reported estimations. Only a marginally significant difference (p = 0.085) was found between after photo recall post-intervention ActiGraph-recorded minutes of MPA and participants’ self-reported minutes, suggesting that participants’ self-reporting accuracy declined after photo recall and intervention. Also, the difference between ActiGraph pre-intervention and post-intervention MPA levels was not significant. ActiGraph-Recorded MPA levels in all participants at pre- and post-intervention were 38.6±21.5 and 37.0±30.0 minutes (p> 0.05), suggesting that the participants did not change their duration of MPA following an 8-week intervention.