Validation of Parent Proxy Report with Pedometry on Preschool Children's Physical activity

The objective of this study was to assess the validity of the Habitual Activity Estimation Scale (HAES) as parent proxy report about the physical activity levels of five- to six-years-old children. Twenty-three children were randomly selected from upper classes in a preschool in Hong Kong. The children's physical activity levels on one typical weekday and one typical weekend were obtained by having their parents completed the HAES questionnaire. And daily steps taken by children on four consecutive days including weekdays and weekend were collected by the pedometer (Yamax, SW-700). The pedometer data were used to assess its agreement with the HAES parent proxy report of the children's physical activity levels. The results showed that the step counts of children between weekdays and weekend as well as between genders were not significantly different. The result also indicated that there was no significant correlation between the HAES proxy report and the daily step counts of children on both weekdays and weekend. To conclude, the validity of HAES parent proxy report in assessing five-years-old preschool children's physical activity levels was low when compared with pedometer data.