Neuromuscular Research Center, Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä FI-40014, Finland. Electronic address: yigao@jyu.fi.
As sedentary behavior is a global health issue, there is a need for methods of self-reported sitting assessment. The accuracy and reliability of these methods should also be tested in various populations and different cultural contexts. This study examined the validity of long-term and short-term recall of occupational sitting time in Finnish and Chinese subgroups.
Two cohort groups of office-based workers (58.6% female, age range 22-67 years) participated: a Finnish group (FIN, n?=?34) and a Chinese group (CHI, n?=?36). Long-term (past 3-month sitting) and short-term (daily sitting assessed on 5 consecutive days) single-item measures were used to assess self-reported occupational sitting time. Values from each participant were compared to objectively measured occupational sitting time assessed via thigh-mounted accelerometers, with Spearman's rho (?) used to assess validity and the Bland-Altman method used to evaluate agreement. Coefficients of variation depicted day-to-day variability of time spent on sitting at work.
In the total study sample, the results showed that both long-term and short-term recall correlated with accelerometer-derived sitting time (??=?0.532, 95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.336-0.684, p