Background:

Physical activity contributes to improve health and reduce mortality in older people. The objective was to analyze the validity of content and reliability of the short version of IPAQ-E in elderly people who attended to Fernando el Católico health center between May 2013 and March 2015.

Methods:

Validation study of the short version of the international physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ) adapted in Spanish elderly (IPAQ-E). Our sampling was for convenience. The short version of IPAQ in Spanish USA was used and its activities were adapted to Spanish elderly. Two measurements of IPAQ-E with 15 days between them were used to analyze the intraobserver reliability. The intraclass correlation coefficient was used to measure intraobserver reliability, Cronbach’s alpha for internal consistency (CI) and Spearman correlation coefficients (CS) to analyze the correlation between IPAQ-E and the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB).

Results:

The sample was 139 people, average age 73,18 years. Intraobserver reliability total was 0.914, besides exceeded 0.9 in the three dimensions of the questionnaire. The CI was 0.518; It exceeded 0.8 in the rest of dimensions of IPAQ-E. The CS between IPAQ-E Total and SPPB was (Rho 0.435 and p <0.01), between the total scores SPPB and walking activity was (Rho 0.426 p <0.01), and the score vigorous activity was (Rho 0,248 p<0,01).

Conclusions:

The IPAQ-E is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring mobility in Spanish elderly. However, more studies about its validity will be required in the future.

        · resumen en Español     · texto en Español     · Español ( pdf )