Reliability and validity of a sedentary behavior questionnaire for South American pediatric population: SAYCARE study.

BACKGROUND: Multicenter studies from Europe and the United States have developed specifically standardized questionnaires for assessing and comparing sedentary behavior, but they cannot be directly applied for South American countries. The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of the South American Youth Cardiovascular and Environmental (SAYCARE) sedentary behavior questionnaire. METHODS: Children and adolescents from seven South American cities were involved in the test-retest reliability (children: n = 55; adolescents: n = 106) and concurrent validity (children: n = 93; adolescents: n = 94) studies. The SAYCARE sedentary behavior questionnaire was administered twice with two-week interval and the behaviors were parent-reported for children and self-reported for adolescents. Questions included time spent watching television, using a computer, playing console games, passive playing (only in children) and studying (only in adolescents) over the past week. Accelerometer was used for at least 3 days, including at least one weekend day. We compared values of sedentary time, using accelerometers, by quartiles of reported sedentary behavior time and their sum. RESULTS: The reliability of sedentary behavior time was moderate for children (rho ≥0.45 and k ≥ 0.40) and adolescents (rho ≥0.30). Comparisons between the questionnaire and accelerometer showed a low overall agreement, with the questionnaire systematically underreporting sedentary time in children (at least, - 332.6 ± 138.5 min/day) and adolescents (at least, - 399.7 ± 105.0 min/day). CONCLUSION: The SAYCARE sedentary behavior questionnaire has acceptable reliability in children and adolescents. However, the findings of current study indicate that SAYCARE questionnaire is not surrogate of total sedentary time.

Reliability and validity of body weight and body image perception in children and adolescents from the South American Youth/Child Cardiovascular and Environmental (SAYCARE) Study.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the reliability and validity of body weight (BW) and body image (BI) perception reported by parents (in children) and by adolescents in a South American population. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. BW perception was evaluated by the question, 'Do you think you/your child are/is: severely wasted, wasted, normal weight, overweight, obese?' BI perception was evaluated using the Gardner scale. To evaluate reliability, BW and BI perceptions were reported twice, two weeks apart. To evaluate validity, the BW and BI perceptions were compared with WHO BMI Z-scores. Kappa and Kendall's tau-c coefficients were obtained. SETTING: Public and private schools and high schools from six countries of South America (Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil).ParticipantsChildren aged 3-10 years (n 635) and adolescents aged 11-17 years (n 400). RESULTS: Reliability of BW perception was fair in children's parents (κ=0·337) and substantial in adolescents (κ=0·709). Validity of BW perception was slight in children's parents (κ=0·176) and fair in adolescents (κ=0·268). When evaluating BI, most children were perceived by parents as having lower weight. Reliability of BI perception was slight in children's parents (κ=0·124) and moderate in adolescents (κ=0·599). Validity of BI perception was poor in children's parents (κ=-0·018) and slight in adolescents (κ=0·023). CONCLUSIONS: Reliability of BW and BI perceptions was higher in adolescents than in children's parents. Validity of BW perception was good among the parents of the children and adolescents with underweight and normal weight.

Measuring Socioeconomic Status and Environmental Factors in the SAYCARE Study in South America: Reliability of the Methods.

OBJECTIVE: This paper aimed to test the reliability of two questionnaires in studies involving children and adolescents (aged 3-18 years) in seven South American cities. One assesses socioeconomic status (SES) and the other measures environmental factors. METHODS: The SES questionnaire was composed of 14 questions, which included the presence of several consumer goods, domestic services, family income, parental education level, and current parental occupation status. The environmental questionnaire was composed of 15 questions to measure the social and infrastructure characteristics of the area of residence. Parents or guardians completed the questionnaires on behalf of their children. Adolescents answered the questions themselves for environmental factors, while those related to SES factors were answered by their parents or guardians. We analyzed the reliability of the questionnaires through kappa coefficient determination. Multilevel linear regression models were applied to calculate the correlation between the total household scores, the household income, and parents' education level. RESULTS: The environmental questionnaire showed good reproducibility in both age groups (k = 0.132-0.612 in children and k = 0.392-0.746 in adolescents). The SES questionnaire showed strong reliability in both age groups for all indicators (k = 0.52-1.00 in children and k = 0.296-0.964 in adolescents). CONCLUSIONS: Our multiple indicator questionnaires focused on environmental factors and SES in pediatric health surveys provided useful and easily applicable additional indicators to measure these important determinants of cardiovascular health.

Estado nutricional de niños que participaron de un programa de educación alimentaria en distintas provincias de la República Argentina / NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF CHILDREN WHO PARTICIPATED IN A FOOD EDUCATION PROGRAM IN DIFFERENT PROVINCES OF ARGENTINA

Introducción: el programa "ActivaRSE" de la Fundación Pepsi- Co promueve acciones de educación alimentaria destinadas a escolares de distintas áreas geográficas de la República Argentina. Objetivos: evaluar el estado nutricional de los niños que participaron del programa "ActivaRSE" durante el año 2014 y conocer la proporción que presentó normo peso, bajo peso o exceso de peso y los que tuvieron talla normal, baja o alta y riesgo cardiovascular evaluado mediante el indicador circunferencia de cintura. Materiales y métodos: se realizó la valoración del crecimiento longitudinal desde el nacimiento al momento del estudio mediante el índice talla/edad, y para evaluar el estado nutricional actual se utilizó el índice IMC/edad. Resultados: se evaluaron 1.358 niños de entre 6 y 10 años de edad de 19 escuelas de Argentina; 52,2% (n=472) hombres y 47,8% (n=432) mujeres. La distribución por lugar geográfico fue: Prov. de Buenos Aires (n=465), Río Negro (n=66), San Juan (n=97), Mendoza (n=168), Santa Fe (n=162) y Tucumán (n=400). Del 45,8% al 62,7% de los niños presentaron un IMC adecuado para la edad, el porcentaje de sobrepeso varió del 17,7% en Buenos Aires al 27,7% en Tucumán. Del 4,9% de los niños en Santa Fe al 16,7% en Tucumán tuvieron obesidad y la mayor prevalencia de obesidad grave se observó en Tucumán en el 7,5% de los niños. El bajo peso fue más frecuente en la muestra de Río Negro y San Juan afectando del 1 al 1,5% de los niños. La proporción de baja talla se registró con una frecuencia del 1,2% en Buenos Aires al 5,4% en Mendoza. El 18% de los niños presentó riesgo cardiometabólico según circunferencia de cintura. Conclusiones: el diagnóstico nutricional de la muestra que revela una prevalencia importante de sobrepeso y obesidad y de riesgo cardiometabólico en niños en edad escolar permitirá redireccionar las acciones del programa.