Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-f46jp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-08T07:44:59.348Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Validation of the Spanish version of the physical activity questionnaire used in the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals' Follow-up Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2007

Miguel Angel Martínez-González ,
Constanza López-Fontana ,
José Javier Varo ,
Almudena Sánchez-Villegas  and
J Alfredo Martinez
Miguel Angel Martínez-González*
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Navarra, Irunlarrea s/n, E-31080 Pamplona, Spain
Constanza López-Fontana
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology and Nutrition, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain
José Javier Varo
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Navarra, Irunlarrea s/n, E-31080 Pamplona, Spain
Almudena Sánchez-Villegas
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Navarra, Irunlarrea s/n, E-31080 Pamplona, Spain Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
J Alfredo Martinez
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology and Nutrition, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain
*
*Corresponding author: Email [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Objective

The objective of this analysis was to test the validity of the estimates of energy expenditure and sedentary lifestyle obtained through a self-administered questionnaire of physical activity for Spanish-speaking people adapted from US questionnaires (Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals' Follow-up Study) using a triaxial accelerometer (RT3 Triaxial Research Tracker) as the reference.

Design and setting: Validation study, calculating the non-parametric correlation coefficients between the level of physical activity and sedentary lifestyle collected by the self-administered questionnaire and the triaxial accelerometer measurements. Percentage of misclassification and kappa coefficients were also calculated.

Subjects

The study population consisted of a sample of 40 obese women who were participants of the SUN (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra) project (a prospective cohort study among Spanish university alumni). They were selected because of their peculiar metabolic characteristics, in the search for a sub-optimal scenario for validity.

Results

Physical activity during leisure time (estimated as MET-h week-1) derived from the self-administered questionnaire moderately correlated with kcal day-1 assessed through the accelerometer (Spearman's ρ = 0.507, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.232, 0.707). The Spearman correlation between the ratio of sedentary lifestyle to physical activity obtained through the questionnaire and the direct estimation (RT3) was -0.578 (95% CI -0.754, -0.325). The kappa index was 0.25 (P = 0.002) when assessing the cross-classification into quintiles and 0.41 for the dichotomous estimation of a sedentary lifestyle. Only 2.5% of participants were misclassified by the questionnaire more than two quintiles apart from the estimates of the RT3.

Conclusions

The moderate values obtained for correlation in a sub-optimal scenario for validity and the low percentage of extreme misclassification suggest the validity of the questionnaire to assess physical activity in Spanish-speaking women aged 20–50 years.

Keywords

Self-administered questionnaireValidationPhysical activityTriaxial accelerometerNon-parametric correlation
Type
Research Article
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 8 , Issue 7 , October 2005 , pp. 920 - 927
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2005

References

1Tanasescu, M, Leitzmann, MF, Rimm, EB, Willett, WC, Stampfer, MJ, Hu, FB. Exercise type and intensity in relation to coronary heart disease in men. Journal of the American Medical Association 2002; 288: 1994–2000.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2Kriska, AM, Saremi, A, Hanson, RL, Bennett, PH, Kobes, S, Williams, DE, et al. Physical activity, obesity, and the incidence of type 2 diabetes in a high-risk population. American Journal of Epidemiology 2003; 158: 669–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3McTiernan, A, Kooperberg, C, White, E, Wilcox, S, Coates, R, Adams-Campbell, LL, et al. . Women's Health Initiative Cohort Study. Recreational physical activity and the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women: the Women's Health Initiative Cohort Study. Journal of the American Medical Association 2003; 290: 1331–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4Mao, Y, Pan, S, Wen, SW, Johnson, KC. Canadian Cancer Registries Epidemiology Research Group. Physical activity and the risk of lung cancer in Canada. American Journal of Epidemiology 2003; 158: 564–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5Varo Cenarruzabeitia, JJ, Martínez Hernández, JA, Martínez-González, MA. Beneficios de la actividad física y riesgos del sedentarismo. Medicina Clinica 2003; 121: 665–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6Delgado Rodríguez, M, Martínez-González, MA, Aguinaga Ontoso, I. Actividad física y salud. In: Gálvez Vargas, R, Sierra López, A, Saénz González, MC, et al. , eds. Piédrola Gil. Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública. 10th ed. Barcelona: Masson, 2000; 935–44.Google Scholar
7Chasan-Taber, S, Rimm, EB, Stampfer, MJ, Spiegelman, D, Colditz, GA, Giovannucci, E, et al. Reproducibility and validity of a self-administered physical activity questionnaire for male health professionals. Epidemiology 1996; 7: 81–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
8Wolf, AM, Hunter, DJ, Colditz, GA, Manson, JE, Stampfer, MJ, Corsano, KA, et al. Reproducibility and validity of a self-administered physical activity questionnaire. International Journal of Epidemiology 1994; 23: 991–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9Sánchez-Villegas, A, Martínez-González, MA, Toledo, E, de Irala-Estevez, J, Martinez, JA. for the SUN Project. Influencia del sedentarismo y el hábito de comer entre horas sobre la ganancia de peso. Medicina Clinica 2002; 119: 46–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10Ainsworth, BE, Haskell, WL, Whitt, MC, Irwin, ML, Swartz, AM, Strath, SJ, et al. Compendium of physical activities: an update of activity codes and MET intensities. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 2000; 32(Suppl. 9): S498–S504.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11Martínez-González, MA, Varo, JJ, Santos, JL, De Irala-Estévez, J, Gibney, M, Kearney, J, et al. Prevalence of physical activity during leisure time in the European Union. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 2001; 33: 1142–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12Martínez-Gonzalez, MA, Martínez, JA, Hu, FB, Gibney, MJ, Kearney, J. Physical inactivity, sedentary lifestyle and obesity in the European Union. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 1999; 23: 1–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
13Tudor-Locke, CE, Myers, AM. Challenges and opportunities for measuring physical activity in sedentary adults. Sports Medicine 2001; 3: 91–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14Westerterp, KR. Physical activity assessment with accelerometers. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 1999; 23: S45–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
15World Health Organization (WHO). Obesity: Preventing and Managing the Global Epidemic. WHO Consultation on Obesity. Technical Report Series No. 894. Geneva: WHO, 1998.Google Scholar
16Martin-Moreno, JM, Boyle, P, Gorgojo, L, Maisonneuve, P, Fernandez-Rodriguez, JC, Salvini, S, et al. Development and validation of a food frequency questionnaire in Spain. International Journal of Epidemiology 1993; 22: 512–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
17Rosner, B, Wolf, AM, Willett, WC. Correcting interclass correlation coefficients for measurement error in unbalanced data sets [abstract]. American Journal of Epidemiology 1993; 138: 597.Google Scholar
18Sallis, JF, Haskell, WL, Wood, PD, Fortmann, SP, Rogers, T, Blair, SN, et al. Physical activity assessment methodology in the Five-City Project. American Journal of Epidemiology 1985; 121: 91–106.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
19Welk, GJ, Almeida, J, Morss, G. Laboratory calibration and validation of the Biotriner and Actitrac activity monitors. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 2003; 35: 1057–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
20Bouten, CV, Westerterp, KR, Verduin, M, Janssen, JD. Assessment of energy expenditure for physical activity using a triaxial accelerometer. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 1994; 26: 1516–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
21Levine, JA, Baukol, PA, Westerterp, KR. Validation of the Tracmor triaxial accelerometer system for walking. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 2001; 33: 1593–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
22Aadahl, M, Jorgensen, T. Validation of a new self-report instrument for measuring physical activity. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 2003; 35: 1196–202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
23Ainsworth, BE, Bassett, DR, Strath, SJ, Swartz, AM, O'Brien, WL, Thompson, RW, et al. Comparison of three methods for measuring the time spent in physical activity. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 2000; 32: S457–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
24Craig, CL, Marshall, AL, Sjostrom, M, Bauman, AE, Booth, ML, Ainsworth, BE, et al. International physical activity questionnaire: 12-country reliability and validity. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 2003; 35: 1381–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
25Schmidt, MD, Freedson, PS, Chasan-Taber, L. Estimating physical activity using the CSA accelerometer and a physical activity log. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 2003; 35: 1605–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26Miller, DJ, Freedson, PS, Kline, GM. Comparison of activity levels using the Caltrac accelerometer and five questionnaires. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 1994; 26: 376–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
27Pereira, MA, FitzerGerald, SJ, Gregg, EW, Joswiak, ML, Ryan, WJ, Suminski, RR, et al. A collection of physical activity questionnaires for health-related research. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 1997; 29: S1–205.Google ScholarPubMed
28Fogelholm, M, Hiilloskorpi, H, Laukkanen, R, Oja, P, Van Marken Lichtenbelt, W, Westerterp, K. Assessment of energy expenditure in overweight women. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 1998; 30: 1191–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
29Hayden-Wade, HA, Coleman, KJ, Sallis, JF, Armstrong, C. Validation of the telephone and in-person interview versions of the 7-day PAR. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 2003; 35: 801–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
30Martinez-Gonzalez, MA, Sanchez-Villegas, A, De, IJ, Marti, A, Martinez, JA. Mediterranean diet and stroke: objectives and design of the SUN project. Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra. Nutritional Neuroscience 2002; 5: 65–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
31Alonso, A, de la Fuente, C, Martin-Arnau, AM, de Irala, J, Martinez, JA, Martinez-Gonzalez, MA. Fruit and vegetable consumption is inversely associated with blood pressure in a Mediterranean population with a high vegetable-fat intake: the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) Study. British Journal of Nutrition 2004; 92: 311–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
32Leenders, NY, Sherman, WM, Nagaraja, HN, Kien, CL. Evaluation of methods to assess physical activity in free-living conditions. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 2001; 33: 1233–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
33Chen, KY, Sun, M. Improving energy expenditure estimation by using a triaxial accelerometer. Journal of Applied Physiology 1997; 83: 2112–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
34Hendelman, D, Miller, K, Baggett, C, Debold, E, Freedson, P. Validity of accelerometry for the assessment of moderate intensity physical activity in the field. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 2000; 32: S442–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
35Willett, WC. Nutritional Epidemiology, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998; 110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
36Jakicic, JM, Polley, BA, Wing, RR. Accuracy of self-reported exercise and the relationship with weight loss in overweight women. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 1998; 30: 634–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
37Sallis, JF, Saelens, BE. Assessment of physical activity by self-report: status, limitations, and future directions. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 2000; 71: S1–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed