Validation of Interviewer-Assisted Recall for Measuring Minutes of Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity in Elementary School Children, Grades 3 and 5.

OBJECTIVE: To test the validity of interviewer-administered recall for measuring moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in third- and fifth-grade children who reported physical activity (PA) only or both PA and diet, using a short (same-day recall in the afternoon) or long (previous-day recall in the morning) retention interval.
METHODS: Randomly selected children (n = 95) wore an accelerometer 1 day in school. Interviews occurred in the afternoon of the day on which the accelerometer was worn or on the next morning. Assignment to interview content was random. Spearman correlations were calculated between MVPA interview and MVPA accelerometer minutes.
RESULTS: The MVPA interview minutes were positively associated with the MVPA accelerometer minutes when the interview focused on PA only (r = .34; P = .02) but not when children recalled PA and diet (r = .12; P = .40). The MVPA interview minutes for the previous day was associated with the MVPA accelerometer minutes (r = .33; P = .02), but not for the same day (r = .17; P = .26).
CONCLUSIONS: A recall interview method that focuses solely on PA is a promising approach to assessing children's school-day PA.