How to Assess Physical Activity in Clinical Practice and for Scholarly Work

Nurse practitioners can assess their patients’ physical activity levels using questionnaires, pedometers, and accelerometers. Questionnaires can be used as a vital sign during clinic visits to categorize patients as meeting national physical recommendations and/or to identify the time per week patients engage in health-enhancing physical activity levels. Alternatively, pedometers and accelerometers can be used by nurse practitioners to monitor patients’ progress in meeting recommended physical activity guidelines and/or to suggest a way for patients to monitor their own physical activity behaviors. These measures can also be used to measure physical activity in research and other scholarly work.