Reliability and Measurement Properties of the Arabic Sedentary Behaviour Questionnaire among Saudi Adolescents
This study demonstrates that the Arabic version of the Sedentary Behaviour Questionnaire exhibits excellent test-retest reliability and agreement for measuring sedentary behaviors among Saudi male high school students, confirming its suitability for use in this population.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
Imagine your body as a high-performance sports car. We all know that if you keep the engine revving and the car moving, it runs smoothly and stays healthy. But what happens if you leave that car parked in the garage for hours on end, even if the engine is technically "on" (you're awake)? That's the world of sedentary behavior. It's not just about "not exercising"; it's about any time you are awake but sitting, lying down, or slouching while burning very little energy—like watching TV, scrolling on a phone, or sitting in a bus. Scientists have long suspected that too much of this "parking" is bad for your heart, your weight, and even your mood. But to fix a problem, you first have to measure it accurately. If you try to guess how long you've been sitting, you might be way off. That's why researchers use tools like questionnaires—essentially detailed checklists—to get a clear picture of how much time people spend in the "parking lot" of life.
This study dives into a specific version of that checklist: the Arabic Sedentary Behaviour Questionnaire (SBQ). The researchers wanted to know if this tool works like a reliable stopwatch when used with teenage boys in Saudi Arabia. Think of it like testing a new ruler to see if it gives you the exact same measurement every time you use it. If the ruler changes its mind between the first and second time you measure a table, you can't trust it. The team, led by researchers from Curtin University and Federation University, gathered 299 male high school students, aged 15 to 18, from three different regions: Asir, the Eastern Province, and Riyadh. They asked these students to fill out the questionnaire twice, with a two-week gap in between, to see if the answers stayed consistent.
The results were incredibly promising. When the students filled out the survey again two weeks later, their answers were almost identical to the first time. The researchers used a statistical score called the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) to measure this consistency. For the total time spent sitting on weekdays, the score was 0.95, and for weekend days, it was even higher at 0.97. In the world of research, anything above 0.9 is considered "excellent," meaning the questionnaire is a very stable and trustworthy tool. It didn't matter if the students were talking about watching TV, playing video games, or sitting in a car; the tool captured their habits reliably.
The team also checked for "systematic bias," which is a fancy way of asking, "Did the students start lying or guessing differently the second time?" They found no evidence of this. The average difference in reported sitting time between the first and second test was tiny—just -3.61 minutes per day for weekdays and 1.66 minutes per day for weekends. To put that in perspective, that's less than the time it takes to watch a short cartoon. The data showed that the students remembered their habits consistently, without a pattern of over-reporting or under-reporting.
However, the researchers did note a few things to keep in mind. While the tool worked great for these specific groups, the study only included boys, so we don't yet know if it works just as well for girls. Also, they didn't check the answers against a physical device like an accelerometer (a sensor that tracks movement); they just compared the two questionnaires. Despite these limits, the study concludes that the Arabic SBQ is a solid, reliable ruler for measuring how much Saudi teenagers sit down. It's a quick and easy tool that health officials and researchers can now use with confidence to track sedentary habits and design better ways to get young people moving.
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