A Multimedia Activity Recall for Children and Adolescents

Self-report measures remain the most popular tool for measuring the habitual physical activity of large samples of children The Multimedia Activity Recall for Children and Adolescents (MARCA) is a computer delivered questionnaire which requires children to recall the previous 24-h in 5 min segments The MARCA retains the key features of pen and paper questionnaires, such as a segmented day format, while capitalising on multimedia features such as graphics, sounds, videos and point and click entry to address children’s inaccuracies in recalling activity and problems associated with incomprehensible responses. The MARCA is linked to a compendium energy costs of 223 activities and predicts energy expenditure, as well as time-distribution of activities. The validity and reliability of the MARCA were assessed in a sample of 66 children (11.62 plus or minus 0.85 y). Validity was assessed by comparing CSA accelerometer counts to MARCA physical activity level (PAL) and minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA. ?5 METs) data from the same day. Spearman validity coefficients were rho = 0.44 (p = 00004) for PAL and rho = 0.34 (p = 0.005) for MVPA. The MARCA was also shown to be reliable with a test-retest coefficient for PAL of r = 0 83 (n 32, p