ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2013 January-February;172(1-2):87-95

Copyright © 2013 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Validity and reliability of the short form Baecke questionnaire in the middle-aged Greek population

Blatsis P., Tzavidas K., Lefas A.

Department of Physical Education and Sports, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

Aim: Questionnaires are most commonly used for measuring physical activity in large epidemiological studies. However, they should be evaluated for their accuracy and reliability. The purpose of this study was to investigate the retest reliability and the validity of the short form Baecke questionnaire in the middle-aged Greek population.
Methods: It was administered twice, with a one year interval, to a random sample of 68 healthy middle-aged people (41 men and 27 women), living in a northern Greek district. Their physical activity (PA) was also measured with the RT3 accelerometer. They all wore the RT3 for four consecutive days. Their overall and all intensity level activity counts were summed up and used to validate the questionnaire.
Results: Intra-class correlation coefficients indicated re-test reliability in both domains and in the total scores of the questionnaire, for both men and women. The coefficients ranged from 0.64 to 0.86. The validity tests revealed a moderate correlation of the total questionnaire score with the overall and almost all intensity level activity counts (ranging from 0.21 to 0.53) for the whole sample, as well as for men (from 0.31 to 0.40) and women (from 0.45 to 0.53). Moderate correlations were indicated for the whole sample, as well as for men and women, regarding the sport index (from 0.39 to 0.66).
Conclusion: Regardless of gender the Baecke short form questionnaire is reliable. It is acceptable for the Greek middle-aged population, when measuring the sport index and the total PA that includes sports and leisure activities.