Agreement between pre-exercise screening questionnaires completed online versus face-to-face

Objectives: To investigate the levels of agreement between self-reported responses to the Adult Pre-exercise Screening System (APSS) questionnaire using online versus face-to-face (F2F) modalities. Design: Convenience sample of adults completing a pre-exercise screening questionnaire using different modalities. Methods: Adult volunteers (n = 94) were recruited to complete the APSS using both online and F2F modalities. Participants were provided a URL link to an online APSS questionnaire then followed-up the next day in a F2F interview. Objective health risk factors were also measured. Comparisons between responses were undertaken using kappa and correlation statistics to determine levels of agreement. Results: The levels of agreement between online versus F2F responses for the seven compulsory Stage 1 questions (known diseases and signs and/or symptoms of disease) were >94% (kappa = 0.644–0.794). Response comparisons for Stage 2 questions on health risk factors were also generally high (>82% agreement) but there were larger differences between reported and measured risk factors in Stage 3. Conclusions: Levels of agreement between the Stage 1 responses were substantial and support the use of this online option for pre-exercise screening. There were larger differences between self-reported and objectively measured health risk factors in Stages 2 and 3.