Evaluation of Intermethod Reliability Between Online and In-Person Fitness Assessments Among Physically Inactive Adults.

Background and Purpose: Online assessments are common. However, scarce research compares the accuracy of online assessments to in-person assessments. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability of an online assessment versus an in-person fitness assessment.

Methods

Participants (N = 20) were recruited using flyers. They completed an online fitness assessment followed by an in-person fitness assessment 2-10 days later. Reliability was evaluated using intraclass correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman plots.

Results

Participants were 30.8 (±20.2) years, mostly female (76.5%), and diverse in race/ethnicity with a body mass index of 23.4 kg/m2 (±3.8). Statistically significant intraclass correlation coefficients were excellent for waist circumference (.93), hip circumference (.94), and push-up test (.94), and good for static squat test (.89) and curl-up test (.76).

Conclusion

The online fitness assessment revealed high reliability when compared with an in-person fitness assessment.