title: A physical activity questionnaire for the elderly.
abstract: A validated physical activity questionnaire for young adults was adapted and validated for use in free living, apparently healthy people, aged 63-80 yr. Test-retest reliability of the questionnaire on 29 participants was 0.89 as determined by Spearman's correlation coefficient. Further classification by tertiles of activity resulted in 72% of the participants being correctly classified and 0% grossly misclassified on two separate occasions. In a similar group of 31 subjects, classifications based on questionnaire activity scores were compared with classifications obtained by repeated 24-h activity recalls and pedometer measurements, showing Spearman's correlations of 0.78 and 0.73, for both methods, respectively. Seventy-one and 67% of the subjects, respectively, were classified in the same activity tertile for both methods. It is concluded that the questionnaire provides a reliable and valid method for classifying elderly subjects into categories of high, medium, and low physical activity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Nutrition, Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Voorrips
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Ravelli
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Dongelmans
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Deurenberg
authors.forename: W A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Van Staveren
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007899:Leisure Activities; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009752:Nutritional Status; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires