The Active NZ Survey consists of two data collection methods which were administered through face-to-face interviews:
- the New Zealand Sport and Recreation Survey; and
- a seven-day physical activity recall diary.
New Zealand Sport and Recreation Survey
The New Zealand Sport and Recreation Survey allowed the collection of the following information:
- participation levels in a variety of sport and recreation activities;
- participation in organised competition or events;
- proportion of adults who received instruction from a coach, instructor, teacher or trainer to improve performance;
- proportion of adults who were members of clubs or centres to partake in sport and recreation activity; and
- level of sport and recreation volunteering among adults.
This New Zealand Sport and Recreation Survey was based on the topic areas and questions from the original New Zealand Sport and Physical Activity Survey.
Seven-day Physical Activity Recall Diary
The seven-day physical activity recall diary was used to primarily assess the frequency, intensity and duration of sport and recreation activities participated in during the seven days preceding the interview. However, the recall diary allowed the collection of in-depth information across four physical activity domains:
- sport and recreation;
- active travel;
- occupational activity; and
- other activities which don’t align with one of the above domains (i.e. incidental activities like washing a car).
For each activity reported in the diary, the following information was collected:
- the specific activity participated in (e.g., swimming, walking to work);
- the day on which the activity was undertaken (e.g. Monday);
- time spent participating at a moderate intensity (e.g. 20 minutes);
- time spent participating at a vigorous intensity (e.g. 10 minutes); and
- for sport and recreation and active travel domains, total time spent participating per day (e.g. 45 minutes).
This information was collected to determine the number of New Zealanders who met New Zealand’s Physical Activity Guideline – participated in at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on five or more days per week.
The seven-day physical activity recall diary used was a modified version of the New Zealand Physical Activity Questionnaire_Long Form (NZPAQ_LF).
Development of the NZPAQ
In 2001 the Hillary Commission, the Ministry of Health and Statistics New Zealand established a Physical Activity Joint Monitoring Group. The purpose of this group was to develop a set of physical activity questionnaires for New Zealand that incorporated international advances in the measurement of physical activity. The following instruments were developed:
- the New Zealand Physical Activity Questionnaire_Long Form (NZPAQ_LF) for use within the Active New Zealand Survey; and
- the New Zealand Physical Activity Questionnaire_Short Form (NZPAQ_SF) for use in the New Zealand Health Survey (NZHS).
Validation of the NZPAQ
After the questionnaires were developed in 2001, the University of Auckland (Department of Community Health) was contracted by SPARC (in partnership with the Ministry of Health) to conduct a validation study. The study began in October 2002 and was completed in October 2003.
The purpose of the study was to determine the validity of both the NZPAQ-LF and the NZPAQ-SF before incorporating these into the respective studies. The two questionnaires were tested against an objective measure of physical activity (heart rate monitoring) and an internationally validated instrument (the IPAQ-Long: International Physical Activity Questionnaire Long Form which was developed and validated by an international consensus group in 2001 (see the IPAQ website).
At the conclusion of the validation study SPARC and the Ministry of Health agreed that the long form questionnaire design was acceptable for inclusion in the Active New Zealand Survey on the basis that the questionnaire would need to be pre-tested and piloted prior to being conducted in the field, with an expectation that some modifications would be required.
See the Validation Report (PDF, 262 KB) for details of the study.