Objective: The purpose of the present study was to use a meta-analytic approach to examine the convergent validity of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Design: Systematic review by meta-analysis. Setting: The relevant studies were surveyed from five electronic databases. Primary outcomes of interest were the product-moment correlation coefficients between IPAQ and other instruments. Five separate meta-analyses were performed for each physical activity (PA) category of IPAQ: walking, moderate PA (MPA), total moderate PA (TMPA), vigorous PA (VPA) and total PA (TPA). The corrected mean effect size (ESr) unaffected by statistical artefacts (i.e. sampling error and reliability) was calculated for each PA category. Selected moderator variables were length of IPAQ (i.e. short and long form), reference period (i.e. last 7 d and usual week), mode of administration (i.e. interviewer and self-reported), language (i.e. English and translated) and instruments (i.e. accelerometer, pedometer and subjective measure). Subjects: A total of 152 ESr across five PA categories were retrieved from twentyone studies.
Results:The results showed small-to medium-sized ESr (0?27-0?49). The highest value was observed in VPA while the lowest value was found in MPA. The ESr were differentiated by some of the moderator variables across PA categories. Conclusions: The study shows the overall convergent validity of IPAQ within each PA category. Some differences in degree of convergent validity across PA categories and moderator variables imply that different research conditions should be taken into account prior to deciding on use of the appropriate type of IPAQ.
Keywords
IPAQ Convergent validityMeta-analysis Physical activity Physical activity (PA) has been regarded as one of the most important habitual behaviours which leads to a healthy life by preventing diseases and increasing health benefits (1)(2)(3)(4)(5) . As the importance of PA has been emphasized, attempts have been made to develop appropriate measurement tools, including objective and subjective measurement tools, to quantify the amount of PA in daily life. Of these, questionnaires remain the most widely used measurement tool in large-scale studies due to their efficiency of measuring PA levels in large populations (6) .The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) is an instrument which was developed by the International Consensus Group in 1998-1999 to establish a standardized and culturally adaptable measurement tool across various populations in the world (7) . IPAQ is designed to assess the levels of habitual PA for individuals ranging from young to middle-aged adults (i.e. 15-69 years old). In addition, there are different forms of IPAQ depending on several variations which include length of questionnaire (i.e. short or long form), reference period (i.e. last 7 d or usual week) and mode of administration (i.e. self-report or interviewer-based).Soon after IPAQ was developed it was translated into several different languages and numerous...