Assessing Sitting Across Contexts: Development of the Multicontext Sitting Time Questionnaire

Purpose: To describe the development and preliminary evaluation of the Multicontext Sitting Time Questionnaire (MSTQ). Method: During development of the MSTQ, contexts and domains of sitting behavior were utilized as recall cues to improve the accuracy of sitting assessment. The terms “workday” and “nonworkday” were used to disambiguate occupational and discretionary sitting. An expert panel evaluated content validity. Among 25 participants, test–retest reliability of the MSTQ items was assessed with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). Convergent validity was assessed versus relative and absolute accelerometer-estimated sedentary time and activity log using Pearson (r) or Spearman (ρ) correlation coefficients where appropriate. Results: Pilot testing revealed Web-based MSTQ administration was rapid, scalable, and inexpensive. Most items in the MSTQ demonstrated acceptable reliability (ICCs>.70). Compared with accelerometer-estimated sedentary time relative to total wear time, the MSTQ exhibited a low correlation on workdays (r = .34) and a moderately high correlation on nonworkdays (r = .61). Conclusions: The systematic development of the MSTQ resulted in several improvements over previous tools and may serve as a model for purpose-driven questionnaire design. Additional validation is needed to conclusively determine the utility of the MSTQ.

Keywords:

• accelerometers
• endurance athletes
• epidemiology
• sedentary
• validation

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the members of the Physical Activity and Public Health Working Group at the Austin Regional Campus of the University of Texas School of Public Health for their support and ideas throughout this process. The first author (GPW) is partially supported by the Cancer Education and Career Development Program, National Institutes of Health Grant NO. 2 R25 CA57712. There were no other sources of funding for this research.

Notes

Geoffrey P. Whitfield is now with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.