Physical activity assessment tools have been used to measure many dimensions and attributes of physical activity. These tools can be categorized into self=report and objective approaches:

Self-report measures of physical activity include self-report questionnaires, activity logs, and diaries. These measures are the most frequently used method of assessing physical activity levels among free-living individuals. These tools vary in their ability to quantify the frequency, intensity, type, and duration of various occupational, sports and leisure, transportation, and household activities over a variety of time frames.

Objective measures of physical activity include measures of energy expenditure such as doubly-labeled water, movement monitors such as pedometers and accelerometers, and measures of the physiological responses to physical activity including heart rate monitoring and fitness testing.

Yes. In fact we have grant ready definitions posted in our Objective Measure Definitions section. A link is posted to the left under Assessment Tools.

You can freely use the text printed as a start and add specifics that pertain to your research. If you need copies of any of the illustrations or photos used in the definitions please send an email to: stortik@edc.pit.edu to request clean, high res images. Please be sure to describe your project, where and how these images will be used.

Primary references are also known as Validity and Reliability articles. As their name suggests they prove/disprove whether a given questionnaire was useful and accurate within the population being studied.

Secondary references rely on primary references to validate the questionnaire that was used in their study. Secondary references do not need to validate the questionnaire that is being used in their research because that proof has already been submitted.

Very simply in fact. On the self-report measures search page, we developed two search forms that will help you quickly narrow your search. You may choose to look for the most appropriate questionnaire based on a measure you may have heard about previously. If so, use the first search form, Search by questionnaire. This will allow you to choose a questionnaire from a drop down menu. You can filter your results by selecting any number of the checkbox options under age, gender, and race/ethnicity. You must specify an article type for the search to implement. You may choose between primary or secondary references. Finally you can also specify a date range for the publication year of search results.

If you have seen a survey before and thought it might be appropriate for your research now, but just can't remember what it was called, try the second search form. It will allow you to enter bits of information, that would be included in the title, journal, keywords or even one of the authors names.

Don't forget, whichever form you decide to use, the Article Type selection is a mandatory one. This will let us know what type of references you are looking for. See the next question to help you distinguish between the two options.

When searching for self-report or objective measures you can click on multiple checkboxes for age, gender and race/ethnicity. These checkboxes represent commonly used search terms. For example by checking the child checkbox, you are actually searching for the following keywords: child, adolescent, adolescence, and infant.

Sometimes you may want to create a custom keyword search but how do you know what terms are used to cover the specified group you are looking for? Easy. As in the child checkbox example given above, each keyword such as infant, was pulled from the MeSH terms tables used by PubMed. You can find the terms we used here.

In both Self-Report and Objective measures search sections, the article type must be specified. At the bottom of each search form you must choose one of the radio buttons to specify whether you want to see primary references or secondary references.

Choose an article type and click the submit button again.

Currently the only way to view a questionnaire is to search by questionnaire from the self-report measures search section. Using the search form at the top of the page, select which questionnaire you would like to view from the drop down menu. Select primary references as the article type and click submit.

In the results on the following page you will see the name of the questionnaire highlighted before the primary references are displayed. Click on the title of the questionnaire. The following page has three buttons. The first button will allow you to download a copy of the questionnaire (if PARC has obtained copyright permissions) including instructions if available. The second button will display all the primary references associated with this questionnaire and the third button will display all the secondary references associated with the questionnaire.

It might be useful for you to take selected results from your search and export them as a text file, to import into a database or MS Word document at a later time.

To do so, simply click on the checkbox to the left of each reference you want to export. Scroll to the top of the results page and click on the export text file icon at the top of the search results.

NOTE: By default if you do not mark any of the checkboxes next to each reference, all of the references will be exported. A popup box will appear prompting you to save or open the file.

To view a print friendly version of your search results simply click on the printer friendly icon at the top of the search results. This will pop open a new window that will display only the search results.

NOTE: By default if you do not mark any of the checkboxes next to each reference, all of the references will be exported. A popup box will appear prompting you to save or open the file.

Just like the export to text file option there is an option to save search results in a format that will import directly to Endnote. At the top of the results page, you will see the export to Endnote icon. After clicking on the icon a File Download window will open, prompting you to open or save the file with your references. Select Open. Your Endnote software will launch at which point you will be prompted by a Select a Reference Library window. Browse your hard drive to your Endnote library and click Open. Endnote will then import your references.

NOTE: By default if you do not mark any of the checkboxes next to each reference, all of the references will be exported. A popup box will appear prompting you to save or open the file.