Reliability of a new questionnaire for the evaluation of habitual physical activity and food consumption in children

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the reliability of the Physical Activity and Food Consumption (PAFC) questionnaire in schoolchildren from a private school in Natal-RN, Brazil. A total of 101 children, 57 boys and 44 girls (mean age: 9.4 years, SD: 1.03, range: 7.3 to 11.6) in the second to fourth grade of elementary school were recruited. An expanded version of the PAFC questionnaire was applied at the school by a single researcher, with an average of 15 days between test and retest. The coefficient of relative agreement, intraclass correlation coefficient, Spearman’s correlation coefficient, kappa index of agreement, PABAK, and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used to determine reliability. In general, relatively consistent measures between the two questionnaire sessions were found for items related to attitude towards exercise (0.41), means of transportation used to travel to and from school (0.79), and the remaining 11 physical activities (0.69). An intraclass correlation of 0.87 as obtained for the overall physical activity index. Twenty-seven of the 42 items presented moderate to good agreement (mean kappa index: 0.51). The PAFC questionnaire showed moderate to good reliability for most of its items and seems to be a suitable instrument for the evaluation of physical activity and food intake behavior in schoolchildren. Moreover, the questionnaire might be used as an alternative for the classification of more and less active individuals as well as for the identification of healthy and inadequate dietary patterns.