PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF AN OBSERVATION SYSTEM FOR RECORDING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN CHILDREN

Although mechanical means of measuring physical activity are available, they cannot provide information about the context in which such activity occurs. Therefore, direct-observation systems remain essential tools for studying physical activity. The Observational System for Recording Physical Activity in Children (OSRAC) is a direct-observation system for recording physical activity and associated environmental variables. We evaluated the concurrent validity of the OSRAC physical activity codes with two types of mechanical measures of physical activity: pedometers and heart-rate monitors. The results indicate that heart rates and step totals generally covaried with the OSRAC activity-level codes, suggesting that these codes are valid measures of physical activity in preschool children. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.