The Sedentary Time and Activity Reporting Questionnaire (STAR-Q): reliability and validity against doubly labeled water and 7-day activity diaries. Journal: Am J Epidemiol | Pages: 424-435| Date: August 2014 | Authors: Csizmadi I, Neilson HK, Kopciuk KA, Khandwala F, Liu A, Friedenreich CM, Yasui Y, Rabasa-Lhoret R, Bryant HE, Lau DC, Robson PJ. We determined measurement properties of the Sedentary Time and Activity Reporting Questionnaire (STAR-Q), which was designed to estimate past-month activity energy expenditure (AEE). STAR-Q validity and reliability were assessed in 102 adults in Alberta, Canada (2009-2011), who completed 14-day doubly labeled water (DLW) protocols, 7-day activity diaries on day 15, and the STAR-Q on day 14 and again at 3 and 6 months. Three-month reliability was substantial for total energy expenditure (TEE) and AEE (intraclass correlation coefficients of 0.84 and 0.73, respectively), while 6-month reliability was moderate. STAR-Q-derived TEE and AEE were moderately correlated with DLW estimates (Spearman’s ρs of 0.53 and 0.40, respectively; P < 0.001), and on average, the STAR-Q overestimated TEE and AEE (median differences were 367 kcal/day and 293 kcal/day, respectively). Body mass index-, age-, sex-, and season-adjusted concordance correlation coefficients (CCCs) were 0.24 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.07, 0.36) and 0.21 (95% CI: 0.11, 0.32) for STAR-Q-derived versus DLW-derived TEE and AEE, respectively. Agreement between the diaries and STAR-Q (metabolic equivalent-hours/day) was strongest for occupational sedentary time (adjusted CCC = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.64, 0.85) and overall strenuous activity (adjusted CCC = 0.64, 95% CI: 0.49, 0.76). The STAR-Q demonstrated substantial validity for estimating occupational sedentary time and strenuous activity and fair validity for ranking individuals by AEE. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25038920

Understanding Health Eating Behaviour Within the Context of the Modern Food Environment Date: 2013 | Authors: Tarra L Penney The prevention of chronic disease requires understanding and intervention related to both individual and environmental level determinants. However, traditional approaches to chronic disease prevention and management have primarily been focused at the individual level, with limited attention toward environmental level influences on health behaviour. This lack of comprehensiveness is partially due to a paucity of complex theoretical frameworks for clarifying the influences of personal cognitive, and broader environmental, variables on a range of health behaviours. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to expand and test a popular health behaviour theory, Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), to include influences of the perceived food environment on healthy eating behaviour. This study involved two phases. Phase 1 expanded SCT to include a perceived food environment construct through review of the food environment literature. Phase 2 conducted a cross-sectional study of 201 adults (age 35 to 69 years) using an online survey to test the expanded SCT informed by phase 1. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling (SEM) to compare the traditional and expanded SCT model. Results demonstrated no significant model fit, with no improvement in oveall fit with the inclusion of the perceived food environment. However, the expansion of SCT to include perceived food environment attributes altered the pathways of influence within the social cognitive model, suggesting that the presence of perceived environment measures is important for understanding how perceived environments might mediate the effect of personal cognitive influences on eating behaviour. These findings have implications for food environment research, the development of ecological theories, the field of health promotion and the prevention of chronic disease. http://dalspace.library.dal.ca/handle/10222/35463