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Purpose

Sitting at work is an emerging occupational health risk. Few instruments designed for use in population-based research measure occupational sitting and standing as distinct behaviors. This study aimed to develop and validate brief measure of occupational sitting and physical activity.

Methods

A convenience sample (n= 99, 61% female) was recruited from two medium-sized workplaces and by word-of-mouth in Sydney, Australia. Participants completed the newly developed Occupational Sitting and Physical Activity Questionnaire (OSPAQ) and a modified version of the MONICA Optional Study on Physical Activity Questionnaire (modified MOSPA-Q) twice, 1 wk apart. Participants also wore an ActiGraph accelerometer for the 7 d in between the test and retest. Analyses determined test-retest reliability with intraclass correlation coefficients and assessed criterion validity against accelerometers using the Spearman ρ.

Results

The test-retest intraclass correlation coefficients for occupational sitting, standing, and walking for OSPAQ ranged from 0.73 to 0.90, while that for the modified MOSPA-Q ranged from 0.54 to 0.89. Comparison of sitting measures with accelerometers showed higher Spearman correlations for the OSPAQ (r= 0.65) than for the modified MOSPA-Q (r= 0.52). Criterion validity correlations for occupational standing and walking measures were comparable for both instruments with accelerometers (standing: r= 0.49; walking: r= 0.27-0.29).

Conclusions

The OSPAQ has excellent test-retest reliability and moderate validity for estimating time spent sitting and standing at work and is comparable to existing occupational physical activity …