Lifestyle Behaviors
Physical activity was assessed by self-report using the 3-day Physical Activity Recall (3DPAR). The 3DPAR assesses a variety of typical physical activities among adolescents and is based upon 34 individual 30-minute time blocks of the 3 preceding days. Each day is broken up into 3 blocks (morning, afternoon, and evening), and participants are asked to recall specific activities as well as the corresponding intensity levels to those activities (light, moderate, hard or very hard). A list of 55 common activities is provided and pictorial representations are used to facilitate accurate assignment of intensity levels. The 3DPAR has been previously validated against accel- erometry in adolescents.13
Dietary intake was measured using the Brief Dietary Assessment Tool for Hispanics.14 This screening tool was specifically designed using data from Mexican Americans participating in NHANES III to assess fruit, vegetable, and fat intake among Hispanics in community settings. The tool shows good reliability scores for both fruit and vegetable consumption (r = 0.64; P < 0.001) and fat intake (r = 0.85; P < 0.001) and may be well suited for assessing changes in these measures in response to interventions.