Examining the Validity and Reliability of the Chinese Version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, Long Form (IPAQ-LC)

Objective: To investigate the reliability and the validity of the long format, Chinese version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-LC).

Design: Cross-sectional study, examining the reliability and validity of the IPAQ-LC compared with a physical activity log (PA-log) and objective accelerometry.

Setting: Self-reported physical activity (PA) in Hong Kong adults.

Subjects: A total of eighty-three Chinese adults (forty-seven males, thirty-six females) were asked to wear an ActiTrainer accelerometer (MTI-ActiGraph, Fort Walton Beach, FL, USA) for >10 h over 7 d, to complete a PA-log at the end of each day and to complete the IPAQ-LC on day 8. On a sub-sample of twenty-eight adults the IPAQ-LC was also administered on day 11 to assess its reliability.

Results: The IPAQ-LC had good test-retest reliability for grouped activities, with intra-class correlation coefficients ranging from 0·74 to 0·97 for vigorous, moderate, walking and total PA, with between-test effect sizes that were small (<0·49). The Spearman correlation coefficients were statistically significant for vigorous PA (r = 0·28), moderate + walking PA (r = 0·27), as well as overall PA (r = 0·35), when compared with the accelerometry-based criterion measures, but none of the IPAQ activity categories correlated significantly with the PA-log. In absolute units, only the IPAQ light and overall PA did not differ significantly from the accelerometry measures, yet overall PA was able to faithfully discriminate between quartiles of PA (P = 0·019) when compared to accelerometry.

Conclusions: The IPAQ-LC demonstrated adequate reliability and showed sufficient evidence of validity in assessing overall levels of habitual PA to be used on Hong Kong adults.