RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF WALKING QUESTIONS IN THE BEHAVIORAL RISK FACTOR SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM (BRFSS)

Abstract

1106 In, 1997 a BRFSS Physical Activity Workshop identified the need for new survey questions to measure the moderate-intensity physical activity recommendations. The CDC developed new BRFSS questions to capture non-occupational walking. Test-retest reliability was performed by telephone administration of the questions at a one week interval. Sixty-nine men and women were asked to record the time spent in non-occupational walking in activities for recreation, exercise, or transportation during the last week. Spearman test-retest correlations between the days walked/wk (r=0.61), min walked/wk (r=0.44), and MET-min walked/wk (r=0.42) were significant (P0.05). Valid and reliable survey questions about walking provide accurate data that will help guide public health surveillance efforts in the year 2000 and beyond. Supported by CDC U48-CCU-409664