Reliability of questionnaire The International Fitness Scale: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective: To perform a systematic literature review and meta-analysis to investigate the reliability of The International Fitness Scale questionnaire for assessing overall physical fitness and related components. Methods: PubMed ® , BIREME, SciELO, EMBASE, SPORTDiscus, LILACS and Cochrane databases were searched using the following search terms: "The International Fitness Scale", "International Fitness Scale" and "IFIS". Article selection and data extraction were performed according to the following eligibility criteria: reliability and/or validity study of the measure tools of The International Fitness Scale; adoption of the The International Fitness Scale as a reference criterion (gold standard) and being an original article. Quality of the study was considered based on Assessment of Reliability Studies. Data analysis used Kappa coefficient of agreement, Cochran and the Higgins I 2 test. Sensitivity analysis was conducted using the withdrawal model. Results: A total of seven articles were included in the analysis. Test-retest reliability coefficients ranged from 0.40 to 0.99, with most studies achieving values ≥0.60, indicative of moderate to substantial reliability. Conclusion: In spite of appropriate test-retest scores attributed to most reliability indicators, heterogeneity among the studies remained high. Therefore, further studies with low risk of bias are needed to support the reliability of the self-reported The International Fitness Scale.

Reliability and validity of the Healthy Fitness Measurement Scale Version 1.0 (HFMS V1.0) in Chinese people

“…Additionally, compared with the International Fitness Scale, a well-known measure of physical health, on school students in Bogota, the HFMS V1.0 PF subcale on three cohorts exhibited consistent internal consistency and retest reliability. 53 The fitness level of the PF subscale achieves the above-average level in the International Fitness Scale summarised by Pereira et al 54 The MF subscale of total samples and three cohorts are also consistent with the results of an Adolescent Psychological Adaptability Scale for primary school students in Shanxi Province and university students in Tianjin City, China. 40 Besides, the SF subscale is also consistent with the social adaptation self-evaluation scale on the Japanese patients with depression from psychiatric outpatient of the Hospital of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health.…”

Self-reported (IFIS) versus measured physical fitness, and their associations to cardiometabolic risk factors in early pregnancy

“…Secondly, in the present cross-sectional study we investigated the validity of the IFIS according to physical fitness levels in early pregnancy, but did not investigate test–retest reliability of the tool over time. However, a previous systematic review and meta-analysis of seven studies concluded that there were moderate to substantial reliability of the IFIS, although heterogeneity was observed among the studies 33 . Moreover, as is commonly the case in research studies, participants enrolled in our study had generally a higher education level (78% had a university degree) compared to the general population (40–45% of women in Sweden) 34 and Swedish pregnant women in their first trimester (54.5%, based on data on 456,045 pregnancies in the Swedish Pregnancy Register between 2010 and 2018) 35 .…”

An m‐Health telerehabilitation and health education program on physical performance in patients with hip fracture and their family caregivers: Study protocol for the ActiveHip+ randomized controlled trial

“…The IFIS is valid against objectively measured physical fitness in older adults (Merellano‐Navarro et al, 2017). Furthermore, a recent systematic review with meta‐analysis found a moderate‐to‐substantial test–retest reliability of the IFIS, where the pooled Kappa coefficient of agreement was higher than 0.60 in most of the dimensions Pereira et al (2020).…”