Preface

For years I have received requests for help from individuals interested in measuring physical activity in population studies. Although I had every intention of pulling together a collection of such assessment tools from my personal files, these good intentions never materialized. That is, until the University of Pittsburgh Physical Activity Epidemiology Student Group was organized. This group is comprised of my masters, doctoral, and postdoctoral students with graduate training in exercise physiology who are interested in obtaining further education in epidemiology and public health. In light of their career objectives, this was an ideal project for this student group to work on together. With seed money from the Hewlett International Small Grants Program and support from our department Chairman, Dr. Lewis Kuller, my students began chipping away at this monumental task. Publication and distribution costs were generously provided by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which helped us to finalize this project. Although there were a few exceptions, the general criteria for inclusion in this collection was that the questionnaire was already published in English in a journal or book before December 1995. Despite all of our intentions to be as comprehensive as possible, we are quite aware that we did not, and could not, include every possible questionnaire in this collection. To determine the final list of questionnaires to be included in this collection, we sought the opinion of outside experts in the field. These individuals are listed in the acknowledgement section and have our sincere thanks. Over a period of 2-3 years this student group, led by Dr. Mark Pereira, has compiled a resource surpassing all of my expectations. The first time Dr. Carl Caspersen (who I asked to assist me as co-editor) and I were handed this collection, we were both amazed and excited about the potential usefulness of this product. While most of the accolades belong to the University of Pittsburgh Physical Activity Epidemiology Student Group, this resource reflects the collected effort of several individuals, many of whom are listed in the acknowledgements. Congratulations on a job well done...and thank you for producing such a valuable resource! Andrea M. Kriska ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: The development phase of this project was funded by the Hewlett International Small Grants Program and the Graduate School of Public Health(Department of Epidemiology) at the University of Pittsburgh. The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided funds to the American College of Sports Medicine to underwrite the cost of printing and dissemination through Williams & Wilkins. We are indebted to the following individuals for their important contributions, consulting, support and/or publishing permission: Deborah J. Aaron, Barbara E. Ainsworth, Donna Arnett, Steven N. Blair, Claude Bouchard, Carolyn E. Barlow, Cora L. Craig, Christine Cameron, Mary Colbert, Sergio G. DaSilva, Steven R. Dearwater, Loretta DiPietro, Nicole H. Falkner, Patty S. Freedson, Gaston Godin, William L. Haskell, Helen Hayden, David R. Jacobs, Jr., Deborah A. Jones, William B. Kannel, H. W. Kohl, Timo A. Lakka, Ronald E. LaPorte, I-Min Lee, Arthur S. Leon, Donna Miller, Jeremy N. Morris, Ralph S. Paffenbarger, Jr., Russell R. Pate, Michael Pratt, Annette M. Reif, James G. Ross, Amy K. Rudzik, James F. Sallis, Wim H.M. Saris, Julie Sarkin, M. Kathryn H. Schmitz, Charlotte A. Schoenborn, Sam Shapiro, Roy J. Shephard, Kevin Smith, Wija A. van Staveren, Laura E. Voorrips, C. Wick Warren, Richard A. Washburn, Peter D. Wood, Richard J. Zimet. We greatly appreciate the valuable assistance of Mark Robertson (Assistant Executive Vice President of Publications and Operations at ACSM), Sondra England (Managing Editor of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise[MSSE]), and Trudy Rutherford (MSSE Senior Account Manager at Williams & Wilkins). Finally, Dr. Kriska acknowledges the NIH (NIDDK) for the funding of her FIRST Award, which allowed her to pursue physical activity questionnaire development and, indirectly, this project.