Measuring physical activity-related environmental factors: reliability and predictive validity of the European environmental questionnaire ALPHA

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

Research

Christopher Gidlow¹  Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij²  Heleen Spittaels²  Maïté Verloigne²  Charlie Foster³  Sylvia Titze⁴  Michael Sjöström⁵  Harry Rutter⁶  Jean-Michel Oppert⁷  Julien Gloanec⁷  Pekka Oja⁸ 

[1] Centre for Sport and Exercise Research, Staffordshire University, Leek Road, ST4 2DF, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, UK;Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Ghent University, Watersportlaan 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium;Department of Public Health, University of Oxford, Old Road Campus, OX3 7LF, Headington, Oxford, UK;Institute of Sports Science, University of Graz, Mozartgasse 14, 8010, Graz, Austria;Karolinska Institute, Department of Biosciences, Preventive Nutrition, 141 57, Novum, Huddinge, Sweden;National Obesity Observatory, 4150 Chancellor Court, OX4 2GX, Oxford, UK;Nutritional Epidemiology Unit, UMR INSERM U557/INRA U1125/CNAM/University Paris 13, CRNH IdF, 93017, Bobigny, France;Department of Nutrition, Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital (AP-HP), University Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris6, CRNH IdF, 75013, Paris, France;Urho Kaleva Kekkonen Institute for Health Promotion Research, FIN-33500, Tampere, Finland;

关键词: Physical Activity;    Geographic Information System;    Predictive Validity;    Vigorous Physical Activity;    Physical Activity Behaviour;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1479-5868-7-48

 received in 2009-11-17, accepted in 2010-05-26,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundA questionnaire to assess physical activity related environmental factors in the European population (a 49-item and an 11-item version) was created as part of the framework of the EU-funded project "Instruments for Assessing Levels of PHysical Activity and fitness (ALPHA)". This paper reports on the development and assessment of the questionnaire's test-retest stability, predictive validity, and applicability to European adults.MethodsThe first pilot test was conducted in Belgium, France and the UK. In total 190 adults completed both forms of the ALPHA questionnaire twice with a one-week interval. Physical activity was concurrently measured (i) by administration of the long version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) by interview and (ii) by accelerometry (Actigraph™ device). After adaptations, the second field test took place in Belgium, the UK and Austria; 166 adults completed the adapted questionnaire at two time points, with minimum one-week interval. In both field studies intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and proportion of agreement were computed to assess the stability of the two test scores. Predictive validity was examined in the first field test by correlating the results of the questionnaires with physical activity data from accelerometry and long IPAQ-last 7 days.ResultsThe reliability scores of the ALPHA questionnaire were moderate-to good in the first field testing (ICC range 0.66 - 0.86) and good in the second field testing (ICC range 0.71 - 0.87). The proportion of agreement for the ALPHA short increased significantly from the first (range 50 - 83%) to the second field testing (range 85 - 95%). Environmental scales from both versions of the ALPHA questionnaire were significantly associated with self-reported minutes of transport-related walking, and objectively measured low intensity physical activity levels, particularly in women. Both versions were easily administered with an average completion time of six minutes for the 49-item version and less than two minutes for the short version.ConclusionThe ALPHA questionnaire is an instrument to measure environmental perceptions in relation to physical activity. It appears to have good reliability and predictive validity. The questionnaire is now available to other researchers to investigate its usefulness and applicability across Europe.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Spittaels et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.