Children's physical activity: Using accelerometers to validate a parent proxy record

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to validate a parent proxy record of children's physical activity with CSA Model 7164 accelerometers. Methods: A parent proxy record was developed to record children's activity after school on weekdays and all day long on weekends for 7 d. Parents recorded both duration and intensity of activity (light, medium, hard and very hard). Children simultaneously wore a CSA-7164 accelerometer around their right hip, which served as the objective measurement against which the proxy record was validated. Sixty-five parent/child dyads participated in the study. Results: The overall activity level of the children was low (<3 METs). Spearman-rho analyses indicated that the accelerometer and proxy record showed poor to fair agreement for the entire monitoring period, with parents consistently overreporting their child's activity levels. Correlation between the two instruments was highest at midday on weekends (0.383) and immediately after school on weekdays (0.267). Conclusion: Due to the low correlation between this proxy record and the accelerometer, the need still exists for a valid measurement of child physical activity that is both inexpensive and easy to employ in larger community-based interventions.