Comparative validation of the IPAQ and the 7-Day PAR among women diagnosed with breast cancer

Participants were women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer and enrolled in the ongoing Women's Healthy Eating and Living Study. Women (N = 159, average age 57 years) wore an accelerometer for one week and then completed the IPAQ or the PAR.The validity correlation of the PAR was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than the IPAQ (0.73 vs. 0.33, respectively). The PAR and IPAQ overestimated total physical activity by 13% vs. 247%, respectively. The PAR had better sensitivity (p = 0.14) and specificity (p < .01) than the IPAQ (100% vs. 71% and 84% vs. 59%, respectively) in predicting attainment of the ACSM physical activity guideline.The PAR was superior to the IPAQ in terms of validity, measurement bias, and screening statistics.Many physical activity self-report measures have been developed [1-3] but few studies have compared the performance of different measures [4]. When new measures are developed, it is particularly useful to compare their psychometric properties to well-established measures in similar samples. Two self-report measures designed to assess overall physical activity examined in the present study were the 7-Day Physical Activity Recall (or PAR) [5,6] and the recently-introduced International Physical Activity Questionnaire (or IPAQ) [7].The PAR [5] has been validated in a number of studies [3] and the purpose of the present study was to compare its criterion-related validity and measurement bias to the long form of the IPAQ. The two self-report instruments (PAR and IPAQ) were validated by comparing their physical activity estimates to those obtained from an objective physical activity accelerometer; the psychometric properties of the two self-report instruments were then compared. As both the PAR and IPAQ were designed to assess physical activity in all domains (occupation, recreation, travel, and housework) over the past 7 days and have similar administration durations, the comparison of the newly-developed IPAQ against the often-used PAR was wa