Suzanne M Garland*, Royal Women’s Hospital, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Elisa J Young, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia Avelyn Y Sim, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia Ilona Tay, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Stefanie Hartley, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia Kim L Bennell, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia John D Wark*, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Track: Research Presentation Topic: Health information on the web: Supply and Demand Presentation Type: Oral presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Building: Sheraton Maui Resort Room: B - Kapalua Date: 2014-11-14 09:00 AM – 09:40 AM Last modified: 2014-10-24

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Background: It has become increasingly challenging to recruit young people into health research using traditional methods, and recent studies have identified social media sites as an effective and innovative means of reaching this demographic. We have successfully used Facebook to target and recruit young women into health research (Young Female Health Initiative).
There are substantial benefits of engaging in physical activity, yet 70% of the Australian population fail to meet recommended levels. Moreover, the amount of physical activity in which young women engage falls sharply between the ages of 16 - 25 years. Self-administered questionnaires are often used to measure physical activity, but limitations, particularly recall bias, compromise accuracy of data. Objective measures can be used to overcome this problem.
Objectives: of this study were to: 1) investigate the concurrent validity output between two subjective measures (the Modified Active Australia Survey (MAAS) and International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) 2) determine test-retest reliability of MAAS and 3) compare IPAQ with an objective physical activity measure in young women – SenseWear armband (SWA) and its acceptability by young women.
Methods: Young Victorian women aged 18- 25 were recruited via a secure website using Facebook, then completed an electronic baseline MAAS & IPAQ before wearing the SWA for 7 days.
At completion of 7 days, participants completed the MAAS again, as well as a questionnaire assessing acceptability of SWA.
Follow-up IPAQ and SWA were analysed by comparing total continuous and categorical activity scores, while concurrent validity of IPAQ and MAAS were analysed by comparing scores from the follow-up questionnaire of MAAS with IPAQ. Test-retest reliability of MAAS was analysed by comparing MAAS total physical activity scores at baseline and follow-up. Participants provided feedback in the follow-up questionnaire about SWA acceptability.
Results: 57 women completed the study. In an interim analysis (n=32), a strong positive correlation was observed between the subjective measures (IPAQ – MAAS) (r = 0.772, p <0.001) for total physical activity and test-retest analysis of MAAS (r = 0.530, p =0.003), but a poor agreement for subjective and objective measures (IPAQ – SWA) (Block: r = -0.218, p = 0.230; Minute: r = -0.189, p = 0.301). Median time between the two questionnaires was 16 days. Overall there was good acceptability of SWA, with 83.7% participants preferring wearing SWA for 7 days, over completing the questionnaires.
Conclusion: Results from this study reveal a strong correlation between MAAS and IPAQ, suggesting MAAS may be a suitable alternative to IPAQ given its much shorter completion time. However, only the total physical activity score was compared in this analysis. Hence, further in depth analysis between different domains of activity would be required to support the result. Moreover, the findings do not support the use of one assessment tool for physical activity over another. It is also encouraged that a questionnaire and objective device be used concurrently to assess physical activity. Furthermore, as SWA had good acceptability in this study, future studies could consider incorporating SWA as an objective physical activity assessment tool.