Short EPIC Physical Activity Questionnaire

short EPIC-PAQ

Physical activity assessment

Questionnaires

14th December 2021

Soren Brage, University of Cambridge

The short EPIC-PAQ was originally designed for implementation in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer study.

The short EPIC-PAQ is a physical activity self-report instrument consisting of four questions. The four EPIC physical activity questions refer to activity during the past year. The first question is a four-point, mutually exclusive, ordered category concerning physical activity at work. The second question asks about the amount of time spent in hours per week for summer and winter separately in each of the following activities: walking, cycling, gardening, do-it-yourself, physical exercise and housework. The third question asks whether any of the activities in question 2 were engaged in such that it caused sweating or faster heartbeat and, if so, for how many hours during a typical week. The fourth question asks about stair climbing. As occupational activity and recreational activity are both likely to be relevant to total energy expenditure, a simple 4-category physical activity index, the so-called Cambridge index, was devised based on these components, to allocate individuals to ordered categories of overall activity.