Establishing Concurrent Validity of the Seven Day Recall of Exercise Questionnaire (7-DREQ)

Practical, field-based methods for accurately assessing rates of exercise are needed. The purpose of this study was to establish concurrent validity of the 7-Day Recall of Exercise Questionnaire (7-DREQ) among adults. A random sample (n = 105) of non-faculty, professional and administrative staff from a large Midwestern university were contacted; 58 volunteers agreed to participate.Upon enrolling in the study, an Actical accelerometer was calibrated for each participant in a laboratory setting. Participants were asked to wear the accelerometer for 7 consecutive days and on the eighth day they completed the 7-DREQ for moderate and vigorous exercise. Pearson product moment correlations were computed between the weekly minutes of moderate and vigorous exercise recorded by the accelerometer and that recorded on the 7-DREQ. Cut-off points used in this study for moderate (1952,3.0-6.0METs) and vigorous (5725,≥6.0METs) activity counts were based on the study by Freedson. Results revealed a significant correlation (r=.78,p<0.05) between weekly minutes of vigorous exercise recorded on the 7-DREQ and weekly minutes exercise recorded by the accelerometer. A significant (r=.40,p<0.05) but lower correlation was revealed for weekly minutes of moderate exercise. About 70% of the reported bouts of vigorous exercise were verified by the Actical as were 36% of the moderate exercise bouts.The results support concurrent validity of the 7-DREQ. Additional instrument refinement is needed to help subjects accurately recall and rate moderate intensity exercise bouts. It appears that many moderate intensity exercise bouts were not verified by Actical due to subject overestimation of the intensity of these activities.