Reliability and Validity of the PAQ-A Questionnaire to Assess Physical Activity in Spanish Adolescents

Background Questionnaires are feasible instruments to assess physical activity (PA) in large samples. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the PAQ-A questionnaire in Spanish adolescents using the measurement of PA by accelerometer as criterion.

Methods In a sample of 82 adolescents, aged 12 to 17 years, 1- week PAQ-A test-retest was administered. Reliability was analyzed by the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and the internal consistency by the Cronbach’s a Coefficient. Two hundred thirty-two adolescents, aged 13-17 years, completed the PAQ-A and wore the ActiGraph GT1M accelerometer during 7-days. The PAQ-A was compared against total PA and moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) obtained by the accelerometer.

Results Test-retest reliability showed ICC = 0.71 for the final score of PAQ-A. Internal consistency was a = 0.65 in the first selfreport, a = 0.67 in the retest in 82 adolescents sample, and a = 0.74 in the 232 adolescents sample. The PAQ-A was moderately correlated with total PA (rho = 0.39) and MVPA (rho= 0.34) assessed by the accelerometer. The PAQ-A obtained significantly moderate correlations in boys but not in girls against the accelerometer.

Conclusions The PAQ-A questionnaire shows an adequate reliability and a reasonable validity for assessing PA in Spanish adolescents.