IHPAA: Inventory for the measurement of habitual physical activity in adolescents

Abstract

Research on health promotion and its relationship with exercise and physical training calls for the development of specific instruments to assess physical activity habits in the population segments that are targeted by researchers. The reliability and validity of such instruments should be ensured. The purpose of the present study is to adapt and validate the inventory of habitual physical activity developed by Baecke et al (1982), so that it can be used in questionnaire surveys targeting adolescent populations. Our version of the inventory follows the initial proposal and keeps the same structure, as it encompasses three main components of a teenager’s daily life: activity at school, sports activity, and activity during leisure time. Along with the structure, our inventory maintains the original goal: to design an instrument that can be used easily and quickly both in collective and individual studies. A sample of 217 adolescents, aged between 14 and 17, from a secondary education school in Murcia (Spain), was used to carry out the standard psychometric analysis. Conforming to Cronbach’s classical method, an overall reliability of α = 0.8453 was achieved. After a factorial analysis using varimax rotation was performed, an acceptable construct validity was reached, and three factors (physical activity at school, physical activity during leisure time, and physical activity when playing sports), which accounted for 59.2% of the total variability, were determined. These results support the use of the inventory in studies about adolescent habitual physical activity. This version of Baecke’s inventory has been called IHPAA - Inventory of Habitual Physical Activity for Adolescents.