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Estimating physical activity using a cell phone questionnaire sent by means of short message service (SMS): a randomized population-based study

  • PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
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Abstract

An investigation in a randomized population-based Swedish study with 564 participants aged 18–80 years showed that mean physical activity levels obtained using short message service (SMS) by means of cell phones (n = 171) were equal to corresponding levels obtained when sending identical questions by web (n = 182) or paper (n = 211). The response rates were similar for the SMS, web and paper groups.

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Abbreviations

PAL:

Physical activity level

SMS:

Short message service

BMI:

Body mass index

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all study participants, Åsa Neij for help with data collection as well as Johan Cederlund and Jan Fjellström for help with the web and cell phone application. This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council (2008-4322), and Karolinska Institutet.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Ylva Trolle Lagerros

  2. Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, PO Box 281, 171 77, Stockholm, Sweden

    Sven Sandin, Christin Bexelius, Jan-Eric Litton & Marie Löf

  3. Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linkoping University, Linköping, Sweden

    Marie Löf

  4. Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Marie Löf

Authors
  1. Ylva Trolle Lagerros
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  2. Sven Sandin
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  3. Christin Bexelius
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  4. Jan-Eric Litton
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  5. Marie Löf
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marie Löf.

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Lagerros, Y.T., Sandin, S., Bexelius, C. et al. Estimating physical activity using a cell phone questionnaire sent by means of short message service (SMS): a randomized population-based study. Eur J Epidemiol 27, 561–566 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-012-9708-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-012-9708-4

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