Validity of an Infant Tummy Time Questionnaire and Time-use Diary against the GENEActiv Accelerometer

ABSTRACT

This study examined the concurrent validity of a tummy time questionnaire and time-use diary against an accelerometer measure. Participants were 29 parents and their 6-month-old infants from the Early Movers project in Edmonton, Canada. Tummy time was concurrently measured using a parental questionnaire, a time-use diary, and a validated GENEActiv accelerometer. In participants with data on all measures (n = 26), relative (Spearman’s rank correlations) and absolute (Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and Bland–Altman plots) concurrent validity were examined. The questionnaire (r_s = 0.60) and time-use diary (r_s = 0.80) tummy time measures were significantly correlated with the accelerometer measure, with large effect sizes (r > 0.50). Compared to the accelerometer measure of tummy time, a significant difference in mean rank was observed for the questionnaire measure but not for the time-use diary measure. Bland–Altman plots showed a significant mean difference in tummy time between the accelerometer and questionnaire measures (42 min/d; 95% limits of agreement: −73,157 min/d) but not between the accelerometer and time-use diary measures (2 min/d; 95% limits of agreement: −47,51 min/d). These preliminary findings indicate both subjective measures may be appropriate for infant studies examining associations with tummy time and/or comparing tummy time between samples. The time-use diary may also provide a relatively precise estimate of tummy time in prevalence studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood
• subjective
• objective
• physical activity
• prone position

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for all the families that participated in the study. The authors would like to thank Jasmine Rai for her help with time-use diary data entry. Study data were collected and managed using REDCap¹ electronic data capture tools hosted and supported by the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute at the University of Alberta.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no competing interests to declare.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [VC], upon reasonable request. The data are not publicly available due to ethical restrictions.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation through the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute, and the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta. The sponsor had no role in the study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; and in writing the manuscript. VC is supported by a CIHR New Investigator Salary Award. ADO is supported by a NHMRC Investigator Grant (Leadership Fellow, Level 2). No financial disclosures were reported by the authors;