TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kahlert, Daniela
A1  - Brand, Ralf
T1  - Questionnaires for assessing physical activity different response scale categories influence responses concerning health- and sport-related cognitions
JF  - Zeitschrift für Gesundheitspsychologie
N2  - The present study examines whether the use of different frequency scales in questionnaires about physical activity influences respondents' own estimation of their activity, as well as subsequent measurements of health- und sport-related cognitions and evaluations. Using a randomized research design we recruited a sample of 118 participants. One group received a high frequency scale for assessing their exercise frequency with the response categories "never", "less often", "once a month", "once a week", or "most days." The other group answered with a medium frequency scale with the alternatives "never", "less often", " once every few months", "once a month", and " once a week or more often." As dependent variables all participants judged the subjective importance of physical activity and their health-related quality of life (WHO-QOL-bref). Results indicate the expected response errors, owing to the fact that using a high-frequency scale produces higher levels of self-reported physical activity (Cramer's V = .30). Corresponding to this the subjective importance of physical activity increased (d = .37) and the health-related quality of life was judged to be better (d = .36). Such artefacts might be eliminated by using standardized formulations such as "I exercise... times per week/month for... minutes."
KW  - physical activity
KW  - measurement
KW  - health-related cognition
KW  - response error
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1026/0943-8149/a000044
SN  - 0943-8149
VL  - 19
IS  - 2
SP  - 96
EP  - 100
PB  - Hogrefe
CY  - Göttingen
ER  -