Table 4.

Steps to select a measurement tool to assess physical activity [73, 110]

	Clinician/researcher needs to assess physical activity characteristics
	Available tools		Questionnaire	Logs and diaries	Heart rate monitor	Pedometer	Accelerometer	Multi- sensing
Content	Clinical practice: behaviour counselling/risk stratification	Suitable	✓			✓
		Less suitable		✓	✓		✓	✓
	Research	Suitable	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓
		Less suitable
	Type of activity to be measured	Total physical activity	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Consideration of outcome		Total energy expenditure	✓	✓
		Walking behaviour	✓	✓		✓	✓
		Domain-specific	✓	✓
		Sedentary behaviour	✓	✓			✓	✓
		Aerobic exercise	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
		Resistance exercise	✓	✓
	Aspect of activity to be measured	Total time	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
		Intensity	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
		Duration	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
		Frequency	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
Feasibility and practically	Costs of tool	Limited	✓	✓		✓
		Medium	✓		✓		✓
		High						✓
	Number of patients/participants to be measured	Low to medium	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
		High	✓		✓	✓	✓	✓
	Patient/participant burden	Low	✓
		Medium			✓	✓	✓	✓
		High		✓
Resources	Staff burden	Low	✓			✓
		Medium			✓	✓	✓	✓
		High		✓				✓
	Data processing/transfer/summarization	Easy/fast	✓			✓
		Moderately easy/fast		✓	✓
		More difficult/ time-consuming					✓	✓
Assessing	Time needed for assessment	One time point	✓
		Few days of administer/ wear time		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
	Immediate feedback for patient/participant/health professional	Yes	✓			✓
		No		✓	✓		✓	✓