Agreement between participant-rated and compendium-coded intensity of daily activities in a triethnic sample of women ages 40 years and older

Participant-rated and compendium-coded intensity, of daily physical activit ies were compared in 148 African American, 144 Native American, 51 non-Hisp anic White women ages 40 to 91 years who completed 4 days of activity recor ds. For compendium-coded intensity,, reported activities were classified as light (< 3 metabolic equivalents [METS]), moderate (3-6 METS), or vigorous (> 6 METS) using the Compendium of Physical Activities (1), whereas these categories were self-assigned for participant-rated intensity. Minutes per day (min/d) spent in activities at each intensity, level were computed. Rel ative to compendium-coded min/d, participants reported significantly greate r time spent in light (+10 min/d; p < .01) and vigorous (+17 min/d: p < .00 1) activities, and less time spent in moderate activities (-27 min/d; p <. 001). Similarly, compendium-coded estimates yielded higher rates of partici pants meeting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-American College o f Sports Medicine and Surgeon General recommendations than participant-rate d estimates (11-18% differences) but substantially lower rates meeting Amer ican College of Sports Medicine vigorous recommendations (22% difference). Further, 247 greater kilocalories per day were estimated based on compendiu m-coded intensity. Kilocalories per day estimates based on compendium codin gs were more highly associated with pedometer counts than those based on pa rticipant ratings (p <. 05). Study patterns were generally seen across all sample subgroups. Discrepancies between participant and compendium estimate s are likely to be most meaningful in studies estimating energy expenditure as it relates to health outcomes and in studies estimating vigorous activi ties.