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. 2022 Jul 8;19(14):8379.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19148379.

Reliability and Validity of Common Subjective Instruments in Assessing Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour in Chinese College Students

Hui Gao  1 , Xingxing Li  1 , Yunhua Zi  1 , Xuanwen Mu  1 , Mingjian Fu  1 , Tingting Mo  1 , Kuai Yu  1
Affiliations

Reliability and Validity of Common Subjective Instruments in Assessing Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour in Chinese College Students

Hui Gao et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The reliability and validity of common physical activity (PA) questionnaires are not well investigated in college students. This study aims to evaluate the reliability and validity of common subjective instruments in measuring PA and sedentary behaviour (SB) among college students. A total of 142 college students were included through convenience sampling. Each participant was asked to wear Actigraph wGT3X-BT accelerometers and fill physical activity logs (PAL) for 7 consecutive days. The Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ), the International Physical Activity Questionnaire long-form (IPAQ-LF), and short-form (IPAQ-SF) were interviewed by face-to-face at both day 0 and day 8. Reliability was evaluated by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), while the validity was evaluated by Spearman correlation coefficient and Bland-Altman statistics. The instruments showed moderate reliability in reporting total PA (ICC = 0.50-0.62) and SB (ICC = 0.47-0.52), while moderate validity in reporting moderate and vigorous PA (MVPA) (r = 0.37-0.42), but fair to poor validity in reporting SB (r = 0.09-0.28). Bland-Altman plots showed that all the instruments would underestimate MVPA and overestimate SB. Thus, in Chinese younger adults, the GPAQ, IPAQ-LF, IPAQ-SF, and PAL provide limited but acceptable reliability and validity in measuring MVPA and SB, among which GPAQ might be the most valid instrument.

Keywords: accelerometer; physical activity; reliability; sedentary behaviour; validity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Bland–Altman plots of the validity of the GPAQ, IPAQ-LF, IPAQ-SF, physical activity log and accelerometer. Abbreviation: GPAQ, Global Physical Activity Questionnaire; IPAQ-LF, International Physical Activity Questionn aire-Long Form; IPAQ-SF, International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form; (A): Agreement of moderate and vigorous physical activity of questionnaires with accelerometer, for a, GPAQ, b, IPAQ-LF, c, IAPAQ-SF and d, PAL, respectively; (B): Agreement of total SB with accelerometer, for a, GPAQ, b, IPAQ-LF, c, IAPAQ-SF and d, PAL, respectively.
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