Measurement of adults' sedentary time in population-based studies

Genevieve N. Healy*, Bronwyn K. Clark, Elisabeth A.H. Winkler, Paul A. Gardiner, Wendy J. Brown, Charles E. Matthews

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articleResearchpeer-review

485 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Sedentary time (too much sitting) increasingly is being recognized as a distinct health risk behavior. This paper reviews the reliability and validity of self-reported and device-based sedentary time measures and provides recommendations for their use in population-based studies. The focus is on instruments that have been used in free-living, population-based research in adults. Data from the 20032006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey are utilized to compare the descriptive epidemiology of sedentary time that arises from the use of different sedentary time measures. A key recommendation from this review is that, wherever possible, population-based monitoring of sedentary time should incorporate both self-reported measures (to capture important domain- and behavior-specific sedentary time information) and device-based measures (to measure both total sedentary time and patterns of sedentary time accumulation).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)216-227
Number of pages12
JournalAmerican Journal of Preventive Medicine
Volume41
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2011
Externally publishedYes

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