Review Article
A review of methods for assessing awareness and knowledge of physical activity guidelines and their relationship to physical activity levels
2021 Volume 23 Issue 1 Pages 15-35
Details
2021 Volume 23 Issue 1 Pages 15-35
Objective: The present study conducted a comprehensive review of the evaluation methods for awareness and knowledge of physical activity guidelines in adults, as well as to observe the relationship between awareness and knowledge of these guidelines and physical activity levels. In this review, we summarize the trends in Japanese and international research in this field and to propose topics for future research.
Methods: PubMed, PsycINFO, and Ichu-shi were used to perform a literature search. The search terms included keywords such as “guidelines”, “awareness or knowledge”, and “physical activity or sedentary behavior”, as specifically designed search expressions. Literature screening was based on set eligibility criteria, and the core characteristics of the studies were extracted and summarized.
Results: Twenty-five articles published after 2001 were selected, based on the screening. The evaluation method for the awareness of the physical activity guidelines was roughly divided into unprompted and prompted recall. Although a positive association was observed between unprompted recall and physical activity, the results proved inconsistent in cases of prompted recall. The evaluation methods for guideline knowledge varied, with many of the evaluation methods asking participants to respond numerically to the recommended amount of physical activity. A positive relationship with physical activity levels was recognized in many of the studies in which participants were asked to respond to the recommendations either numerically or through multiple options. Only one study evaluated sedentary behavior.
Conclusion: The evaluation methods for quantifying awareness and knowledge of the physical activity guidelines varied among studies. The results were inconsistent on the relationship between awareness or knowledge of the guidelines and physical activity levels. Future studies should standardize these evaluation methods, and accumulate studies that evaluate physical activity and sedentary behavior using objective measurements.
