Abstract
BackgroundMexican Americans are the largest minority group in the US and suffer disproportionate rates of diseases related to the lack of physical activity (PA). Since many of these Mexican Americans are Spanish-speaking, it is important to validate a Spanish language physical activity assessment tool that can be used in epidemiology as well as clinical practice. This study explored the utility of two Spanish translated physical activity questionnaires, the Stanford Brief Activity Survey (SBAS) and the Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity (RAPA), for use among Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans.MethodsThirty-four participants (13 M, 21 F; 37.6 ± 9.5 y) completed each of the two PA surveys twice, one week apart. During that week 31 participants also wore an ActiGraph GT1M accelerometer for 7 days to objectively measure PA. Minutes of moderate and vigorous PA (MVPA) were determined from the accelerometer data using Freedson and Matthews cut points.ResultsValidity, determined by Spearman correlation coefficients between questionnaire scores and minutes of ActiGraph measured MVPA were 0.38 and 0.45 for the SBAS and RAPA, respectively. Test-retest reliability was 0.61 for the SBAS and 0.65 for the RAPA. Sensitivity and specificity were 0.60 and 0.47 for the SBAS, and 0.73 and 0.75 for the RAPA. Participants who were classified as meeting the 2008 National Physical Activity Guidelines by the RAPA engaged in significantly (p < 0.05) more minutes of MVPA than those who were not, while there were no significant differences in minutes of MVPA classified by the SBAS.ConclusionsThe SBAS and the RAPA are both reasonably valid measures for quickly assessing PA and determining compliance to the PA guidelines in Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans. Although the two questionnaires had comparable reliability, the RAPA was better able to distinguish between those who met and did not meet National PA Guidelines.
Highlights
Mexican Americans are the largest minority group in the US and suffer disproportionate rates of diseases related to the lack of physical activity (PA)
Participants were excluded if they met any of the following criteria: (a) known chronic conditions, (b) following a specific diet regimen, (c) inability to walk for exercise, (d) pregnancy or breastfeeding, (e) use of lipid lowering or antihypertensive medications, and (f) participation in any other research study
The purpose of this work was to explore the utility of the Mexican Spanish version of two questionnaires, the Stanford Brief Activity Survey (SBAS) and the Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity (RAPA), for use as tools to assess PA in Mexican-American adults
Summary
Mexican Americans are the largest minority group in the US and suffer disproportionate rates of diseases related to the lack of physical activity (PA). Relative to other ethnic groups, Mexican Americans are considered to be at increased risk for the development of chronic diseases. This is in part due to disparities in the prevalence of risk factors such as obesity [2,3,4], cardiovascular disease risk factors [5], inflammatory markers [6,7], insulin resistance [8], and metabolic syndrome and its components [9]. Low levels of PA are associated with an increased risk of mortality [13,14] and risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease [15,16]
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