Types

• Self-report techniques (paper & pencil)
  • Self-administered questionnaire
    • IPAQ
  • Interviewer-administered questionnaire
    • Face to face, phone
  • Proxy-report questionnaire
    • E.g. parents on Pa behaviour of children
  • Diaries
    • Daily chronological recall of activity behaviour
  • PA logs
    • Like diaries but less burdensome: checklist

Pros

• Inexpensive, allowing large sample sizes
• Low participant burden
• Quantitative and qualitative information
• Estimate energy expenditure through Ainsworth Compendium

Cons

• Validity: recall of PA
  • especially in youth and elderly
• interpretation bias
• social desirability bias
• data processing: labour- and time-consuming
  • implications for large-scale studies

Digital

• online or digitalised methods of self-report
  • computer questionnaire
    • no missing data, no data entry, no coding error, immediate report, skip needless questions
  • electronic diaries
    • real-time registration of activity type (no recall bias)
  • ecological momentary assessment
    • answer to message/question on smartphone
      • contest of activity behaviour
        • environment
        • social aspects
        • emotional aspects
        • ...