Testing the validity of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire in early Spanish adolescents: A modified protocol for data collection
Abstract
The short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-SF) has been recommended as an efficient method to assess physical activity (PA), but its validity has not been investigated in Spanish adolescents. This article, which is comprised of two studies, pursues firstly to test the validity of the IPAQ-SF in a sample of Spanish adolescents, and secondly to test and compare the validity of the IPAQ-SF using a modified protocol version specifically adapted to adolescents.
Given that this work is divided into two studies, two independent samples were used. One sample of 270 adolescents for Study One (55% males), and another sample of 151 adolescents for Study Two (44.6% males), aged 11–14 years old, were recruited from six secondary schools in Huesca (Spain). All subjects wore an accelerometer for seven consecutive days and completed the IPAQ-SF on the last day. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated between both methods. The Bland and Altman method was also used to provide the total error between the two methods in both studies.
Significant correlations between IPAQ-SF and accelerometer data were found for time spent on moderate, vigorous and moderate-to-vigorous PA. Moderate-to-vigorous PA levels were significantly overestimated by IPAQ-SF. Bland Altman plots showed that results from the IPAQ-SF, conducted with a modified adapted protocol for early adolescents, obtained much better levels of agreement for vigorous and moderate-to-vigorous PA intensities.
The IPAQ-SF may be a valid tool to measure PA levels in early adolescents, especially when methodological modifications are applied in the data collection protocol.
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The works and papers that are published in this Journal are subject to the following terms:
1. The Publication Service of the University of Murcia (the publisher) has the Publication Rights (Copyright) to the published papers and works, and favors and permits the reusing of the same under the license indicated in point 2.
© Servicio de Publicaciones, Universidad de Murcia, 2013
2. The papers and works are to be published in the digital edition of the Journal under the license Creative Commons Reconocimiento-No Comercial-Sin Obra Derivada 3.0 España (legal text). The copying, using, spreading, transmitting and publicly displaying of the papers, works or publication are permitted as long as: i) the authors and original sources (Journal, publisher and URL of the publication) are quoted; ii) it is not used for commercial benefit; iii) the existence and specifications of this users license are mentioned.
3. Conditions of Self-Archiving. It is permitted and encouraged that the authors spread electronically the pre-print (before printing) and/or post-print (the revised, evaluated and accepted) versions of their papers or works before their publication since this favors their circulation and early diffusion and therefore can help increase their citation and quotation, and also there reach through the academic community.
