Physical activity measurement in people with spinal cord injury: comparison of accelerometry and self-report (the Physical Activity Recall Assessment for People with Spinal Cord Injury).

AbstractPurpose: To (1) evaluate the level of agreement between individually calibrated accelerometers and the self-reported Physical Activity Recall Assessment for People with Spinal Cord Injury when assessing moderate-vigorous physical activity; and (2) qualitatively examine the different components of physical activity each measure assesses.Materials/methods: Nineteen manual wheelchair users with chronic spinal cord injury (19.0 ± 12.9 years post injury, C5-L2 injury level) wore a wrist and spoke accelerometer for one week then returned to the lab and completed the Physical Activity Recall Assessment for People with Spinal Cord Injury for their last 3 days of accelerometer wear.Results: Bland-Altman plots revealed low levels of agreement between the two measures when measuring total (bias = −5.6 ± 70.41 min/d, 95% agreement limits = −143.6–132.4 min/d), wheeled (bias = −9.7 ± 30.2 min/d, 95% agreement limits = −69.0–49.5 min/d), and non-wheeled (bias =12.3 ± 53.8 min/d, 95% agreement limits = −93.1–117...