The objective was to examine the relationships of self-reported physical activity (PA) by domain (leisure, occupational, other)
with PA and sedentary time as measured objectively by accelerometry. Subjects were adults with low habitual PA levels from
a community in northern France. Among subjects in the lowest tertile of a PA score from a screening questionnaire, 160 (37%
males, age: 41.0 ± 10.8 years, BMI: 25.1 ± 4.1 kg/m
2, mean ± SD) completed a detailed instrument (Modifiable Activity Questionnaire), and wore an accelerometer (Actigraph) for
seven consecutive days. Relationships between questionnaire domains (occupational, leisure, and “non-occupational non-leisure”)
and accelerometry measures (total activity and sedentary time) were assessed using Spearman correlation coefficients. In this
population, the highest contributor to total reported PA (h/week) was occupational PA. Time spent in non-occupational non-leisure
PA ranked second in women and third in men. The most frequent non-occupational non-leisure PA were shopping and household
chores. In women, non-occupational non-leisure PA contributed more than occupational or leisure-time PA to total PA energy
expenditure (median: 18.0, 9.1, and 4.9 MET-h/week, respectively). Total PA by accelerometry (count/day) was correlated to
leisure-time PA in women (
r = 0.22,
P < 0.05) and to occupational (
r = 0.43,
P < 0.01) and total reported PA (
r = 0.39,
P < 0.01) in men (all in MET-h/week). There was an inverse relationship between accelerometry sedentary time (h/day) and non-occupational
non-leisure PA (MET-h/week,
r = −0.30,
P < 0.001). These findings indicate the importance of assessing non-occupational non-leisure PA for a better understanding
of how individuals partition their time between active or sedentary occupations.
Keywords Accelerometry - Lifestyle - Physical activity - Questionnaire - Sedentary behavior - Occupation