Self-report recall questions are commonly used to measure physical activity, energy expenditure (EE) and time use in children and adolescents. However, self-report questionnaires show low to moderate validity, mainly due to inaccuracies in recalling activity in terms of duration and intensity. Aside from recall errors, inaccuracies in estimating energy expenditure from self-report questionnaires are compounded by a lack of data on the energy cost of everyday activities in children and adolescents. This thesis describes the development of the Multimedia Activity Recall for Children and Adolescents (MARCA), a use-of-time instrument designed to address both the limitations of self-report recall questionnaires in children, and the lack of energy cost data in children. / The thesis begins by investigating the energy cost of everyday activities in children and adolescents. An extensive literature search was undertaken to identify as many studies as possible where the energy cost of child and adolescent everyday activities were measured. Data were available from 52 studies totalling 5982 measures made on 43 activities. The data collated in the literature search was used to identify significant gaps in the literature and evaluate existing techniques of assigning energy cost values to child and adolescent activities when measured values are not available. The results suggest that using adult METs is the most accurate technique to assign energy cost values when child-specific measures are not available. / After identifying areas of missing energy cost data, the energy cost of three types of child and adolescent activities were measured: playing video centre games; performing household chores; and “new locomotions”, i.e. riding non-motorised scooters and rollerblading. A total of 131 measures were undertaken on 11-13 year old children using indirect calorimetry. Energy costs ranged from 1.3 to 6.4 METs for video centre games; 1.9 to 3.6 METs for household chores; and 6.5 to 6.6 for the new locomotions. / Next, the development, validity and reliability of the MARCA are discussed. The MARCA is described in terms of its three components: the 1-d recall; the compendium of child-specific energy costs and the analytical module. In particular, the advantages of the multimedia features of the MARCA over traditional pen and paper questionnaires are highlighted. The MARCA was then validated by comparing accelerometer counts with MARC recall data collected on a sample of sixty six 10-13 year olds. The MARCA showed validity comparable to other self-report instruments with Spearman coeffiecients ranging from 0.88 to 0.94. Finally, the thesis demonstrates the unique analytical capabilities of the MARCA via a variety of analyses conducted on the MARCA self-report recall profiles of 1429 children and adolescents aged 9 to 15 years. / Thesis (PhDHumanMovement)--University of South Australia, 2005.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/267458 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Ridley, Kate. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | copyright under review |
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