Archives of Rehabilitation Research and Clinical Translation (Dec 2021)

Construct Validity and Responsiveness of the Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity in Adults Living With HIV

  • Kenneth S. Noguchi, MSc,
  • Kelly K. O'Brien, PT, PhD,
  • Rachel L. Aubry, MSc,
  • Soo Chan Carusone, PhD,
  • Lisa Avery, MSc,
  • Patricia Solomon, PhD,
  • Ivan Ilic, MA,
  • Zoran Pandovski, BA,
  • Mehdi Zobeiry, MA,
  • Ada Tang, PT, PhD

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 3, no. 4
p. 100164

Abstract

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Objective: To evaluate the construct validity and responsiveness of the Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity (RAPA) for measuring physical activity (PA) in adults living with HIV. Design: Secondary analysis of an interrupted time-series intervention study. Setting: Community-based fitness facility in Toronto, Canada. Participants: Sixty-seven adults (N=67) living with HIV (n=5 women; mean age, 51.8±11.6 years) with available baseline data to assess for construct validity of the RAPA, of which 50 (n=4 women; age, 53.2±11.4 years) had follow-up data to evaluate responsiveness. Interventions: Two months of a community-based exercise intervention involving thrice weekly multicomponent exercises. Main Outcome Measures: We used a single-item PA questionnaire as a convergent outcome to the RAPA, while peak oxygen consumption, general health status, and number of concurrent health conditions were divergent outcomes. We tested 11 a priori hypotheses (6 construct validity, 5 responsiveness) using Spearman ρ, Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, Cohen's d, standardized effect size (SES), and standardized response mean (SRM). We considered acceptable construct validity and responsiveness if >75% of hypotheses were confirmed. Results: All of the hypotheses (100%) for construct validity were confirmed. The RAPA demonstrated moderate correlations with the single-item PA questionnaire (ρ=0.61), and negligible correlations with divergent outcome measures (ρ=0.08-0.21). Two of the 5 hypotheses (40.0%) for responsiveness were confirmed. RAPA scores were significantly greater after 2 months of training (P<.001) and demonstrated a small to moderate effect size (d=0.50, SES=0.47, SRM=0.48). There was a low correlation between change in RAPA scores and change in single-item PA questionnaire scores (ρ=0.48). Conclusions: The RAPA demonstrated acceptable construct validity and poor responsiveness in adults living with HIV. Therefore, the RAPA can be used cross-sectionally but may be used in conjunction with other measures of PA for adults living with HIV.

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