Screening Physical Activity in Family Practice: Validity of the Spanish Version of a Brief Physical Activity Questionnaire

PLoS One. 2015 Sep 17;10(9):e0136870. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136870. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Objectives: The use of brief screening tools to identify inactive patients is essential to improve the efficiency of primary care-based physical activity (PA) programs. However, the current employment of short PA questionnaires within the Spanish primary care pathway is unclear. This study evaluated the validity of the Spanish version of a Brief Physical Activity Assessment Tool (SBPAAT).

Methods: A validation study was carried out within the EVIDENT project. A convenience sample of patients (n = 1,184; age 58.9±13.7 years; 60.5% female) completed the SBPAAT and the 7-day Physical Activity Recall (7DPAR) and, in addition, wore an accelerometer (ActiGraph GT3X) for seven consecutive days. Validity was evaluated by measuring agreement, Kappa correlation coefficients, sensitivity and specificity in achieving current PA recommendations with the 7DPAR. Pearson correlation coefficients with the number of daily minutes engaged in moderate and vigorous intensity PA according to the accelerometer were also assessed. Comparison with accelerometer counts, daily minutes engaged in sedentary, light, moderate, and vigorous intensity PA, total daily kilocalories, and total PA and leisure time expenditure (METs-hour-week) between the sufficiently and insufficiently active groups identified by SBPAAT were reported.

Results: The SBPAAT identified 41.3% sufficiently active (n = 489) and 58.7% insufficiently active (n = 695) patients; it showed moderate validity (k = 0.454, 95% CI: 0.402-0.505) and a specificity and sensitivity of 74.3% and 74.6%, respectively. Validity was fair for identifying daily minutes engaged in moderate (r = 0.215, 95% CI:0.156 to 0.272) and vigorous PA (r = 0.282, 95% CI:0.165 to 0.391). Insufficiently active patients according to the SBPAAT significantly reported fewer counts/minute (-22%), fewer minutes/day of moderate (-11.38) and vigorous PA (-2.69), spent fewer total kilocalories/day (-753), and reported a lower energy cost (METs-hour-week) of physical activities globally (-26.82) and during leisure time (-19.62).

Conclusions: The SBPAAT is a valid tool to identify Spanish-speaking patients who are insufficiently active to achieve health benefits.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Family Practice*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Language*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Motor Activity*
  • Primary Health Care
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Surveys and Questionnaires*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This project was financed by the Carlos III Health Institute of the Ministry of Health in Spain (FIS: PS09/00233, PS09/01057, PS09/01972, PS09/01376, PS09/0164, PS09/01458, RETICS D06/0018) and the Autonomous Government of Castile and Leon (SAN/1778/2009). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.