Bewegungstagebücher zur Messung der Bewegungsaktivität für Kinder und Jugendliche

Activity diaries offer higher economy and feasibility for measuring physical activities in children and adolescents, which device-based or observation-based methods cannot provide. Additionally, they eliminate the need for retrospective assessment, which questionnaires rely on, and may lead to bias due to memory errors.

This study presents the development of time diaries that allow for the measurement of average physical activity in children and adolescents (3–15 years). Additionally, this study analysed whether and to what extent the 1‑week survey period can be shortened.

Data on physical activity were collected from 630 activity diaries. Subsequently, stepwise regression models were used to investigate whether average physical activity can be successfully predicted with fewer days.

The activity diaries falilitate the evaluation of physical activities in many ways. The regression models showed that reducing the survey period to 3–5 days still provides comparable results regarding average weekly values.

These time diaries allow for conclusions about potential needs for promoting physical activities or evaluating the effectiveness of such measures. By shortening the survey period, the feasibility and economy of these time diaries are further increased.