Physical Activity Measurement Survey (PAMS) Study

Overview of the Project and the Team

The Physical Activity Measurement Study (PAMS) was designed to understand measurement errors associated with the use of physical activity recall instruments. The project was funded from an NIH R01 grant (R01 HL91024-01A1) and multiple manuscripts are still being prepared. The primary goal of the PAMS was to develop a measurement error model to correct for errors associated with a 24-hours physical activity recall (24PAR) relative to the SenseWear Armband (SWA) from a representative sample of adults (n=1486). An extensive set of socio-demographic/ physical activity variables was obtained from the participants. This allowed for comprehensive understandings of underlying characteristics of physical activity and sedentary behaviors assessed with the 24PAR and SWA. 

The PAMS project relied on interdisciplinary collaborative work among 3 parties of Iowa State University: Department of Kinesiology, Department of Statistics, and Survey and Behavioral Research Services (SBRS). Researchers from Kinesiology (Dr. Gregory Welk; Primary Investigator) and Statistics (Drs. Sarah Nusser and Alicia Carriquiry; Co-primary investigators) conceptualized and   constructed the overall study protocol/ methodology. The SBRS was mainly involved in the data collection process.

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Highlights and Selected Graphics

Published Articles

  1. Kim, Y., & Welk, G. J. (2017). The accuracy of the 24-h activity recall method for assessing sedentary behaviour: the physical activity measurement survey (PAMS) project. Journal of Sports Sciences. 35(3):255-261.
  2. Kim, Y., & Welk, G. J. (2015). Characterizing the context of sedentary lifestyles in a representative sample of adults: a cross-sectional study from the physical activity measurement study project. BMC Public Health, 15(1), 1.
  3. Welk, G. J., & Kim, Y. (2015). The Context of Physical Activity in a Representative Sample of Adults. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 47(10): 2102-2110.
  4. Kim, Y., Welk, G. J., Braun, S. I., & Kang, M. (2015). Extracting objective estimates of sedentary behavior from accelerometer data: measurement considerations for surveillance and research applications. PloS one, 10(2), e0118078.
  5. Beyler, N., Fuller, W., Nusser, S., & Welk, G. (2015). Predicting objective physical activity from self-report surveys: a model validation study using estimated generalized least-squares regression. Journal of Applied Statistics, 42(3), 555-565.
  6. Welk GJ, Kim Y, Stanfill B, Osthus DA, Calabro AM, Nusser SM, Carriquiry A. (2014) Validity of 24-h Physical Activity Recall: Physical Activity Measurement Survey. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2014 Feb 19. PMID:24561818 Click here
  7. Nusser SM, Beyler NK, Welk GJ, Carriquiry AL, Fuller WA, King B MN. (2012) Modeling errors in physical activity recall data. Journal of Physical Activity Health. Suppl 1:S56-67. PMID:22287449 Click here

Requesting Access to the Data

The data set along with the code book and study manual are being currently prepared for sharing with the public. If you have any specific questions about the data, please contact gwelk@iastate.edu