New guide to physical activity measures in longitudinal studies now available to researchers

A new, searchable, online guide on physical activity measures used in six longitudinal studies, including the 1958, 1970 and Millennium birth cohorts, has been launched by CLOSER.

The guide was produced as part of a CLOSER project led by CLS researchers, Dr David Bann and Dr Meg Fluharty, who were investigating how levels of physical activity vary by age and sex.

The guide enables users to learn about 281 measures of physical activity, across the following six longitudinal studies:

• 1946 MRC National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD)
• 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS)
• 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)
• Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)
• Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)
• Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS)

Divided into four sections, the guide focuses on self-reported measures of physical activity in each study, as well as providing some detail on objective measures where available.

• The first section defines physical activity and introduces its key domains, highlighting how the measures have been used in research, as well as providing an overview of data collection methods;
• The second section outlines how each of the CLOSER partner studies in the project has measured physical activity;
• The third section describes and discusses the potential for cross-study comparability in the different domains of physical activity and also touches on longitudinal within-study comparability;
• The fourth section consists of a searchable online index that captures all of the variables covered by the guide, allowing users to search and filter them easily.

Further information

Explore the online physical activity measures guide on the CLOSER website.