Reproducibility and Relative Validity of the Short Questionnaire to Assess Health-Enhancing Physical Activity

Objective The purpose of this study is to determine reproducibility and relative validity of the Short Questionnaire to Assess Health enhancing physical activity (SQUASH).

Methods Participants (36 men and 14 women, aged 27–58) were asked to complete the SQUASH twice with an in between period of approximately 5 weeks. In addition, participants wore the Computer Science and Applications (CSA) Activity Monitor for a 2-week period following the first questionnaire.

Results The Spearman correlation for overall reproducibility of the SQUASH was 0.58 (95%-CI 0.36–0.74). Correlations for the reproducibility of the separate questions varied between 0.44 and 0.96. Spearman’s correlation coefficient between CSA readings and the total activity score was 0.45 (95%-CI 0.17–0.66).

Conclusion In conclusion, the SQUASH is a fairly reliable and reasonably valid questionnaire and may be used to order subjects according to their level of physical activity in an adult population. Because the SQUASH is a short and simple questionnaire, it may proof to be a very useful tool for the evaluation of health enhancing physical activity in large populations.

Link to Article: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/kmandyam/Good%20Papers/Good%20papers/paper4ok.pdf