Single item measure of Physical Activity (M1) 

Single item measure of Physical Activity (M1) is a validated measure of physical activity (Milton et al., 2010). It is suitable for capturing the efficacy of sports programme with participants aged 16 years and over.  

The M1 question is: 

In the past week, on how many days have you done a total of 30 minutes or more of physical activity, which was enough to raise your breathing rate?  

This may include sport, exercise and brisk walking or cycling for recreation or to get to and from places, but should not include housework or physical activity that may be part of your job.  

Participants can respond with 0 to 7 days. 

M1 supports Systemic evaluation, which is a key pillar of Sport Ireland’s multi-tiered approach to evaluation. 

We encourage all organisations that provides sports programmes to add the M1 question to their registration forms. This will provide a baseline for the participants’ physical activity level before they take part in a programme (registration data), with minimal administrative burden on organisations. Where it is possible to collect data on the last day of a programme (post-programme data), the difference between post-programme data and registration data will show the immediate efficacy of the programme. Where data is collected 3 months after participants complete a programme (3-month post-programme), the long-term efficacy of the programme can be captured. 

We appreciate the administrative requirements on collecting post-programme data and 3-month post-programme data. Therefore we would advise organisations to target specific programmes of interest and strategic importance to collect 3-month post-programme data for those programmes. We advise organisations to target 2 to 3 programmes per year to collect the full data set for. 

M1 data collection timepoints: 

Registration: collect M1 data along with participants’ age, gender, location by adding M1 question to registration form 

Post-programme: collect data on final day of programme 

3-month post-programme: follow-up with participants on specific programmes of interest.  

Organisations are invited to complete a separate M1 reporting Template for each programme. The template contains helpful prompts and guidance on the information required. Please note that the M1 reporting template is designed and formatted for Sport Ireland to collate the data at scale, therefore please ensure that guidance is followed when completing the reporting template. It is important for organisations to ensure that no participants’ personal data are shared with Sport Ireland.

Here is an example of a completed M1 reporting template. 

Please contact evaluation@sportireland.ie with any questions about M1 data collection.