Reproducibility and relative validity of the short questionnaire to assess health-enhancing physical activity

Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine reproducibility and relative validity of the Short QUestionnaire to ASsess Healthenhancing physical activity (SQUASH).

Methods: Participants (36 men and 14 women, aged 27-58) were asked to complete the SQUASH twice with an inbetween period of approximately 5 weeks. In addition, participants wore the Computer Science and Applications (CSA) Activity Monitor for a 2-week period following the first questionnaire.

Results: The Spearman correlation for overall reproducibility of the SQUASH was 0.58 (95%-CI 0.36-0.74). Correlations for the reproducibility of the separate questions varied between 0.44 and 0.96. Spearman’s correlation coefficient between CSA readings and the total activity score was 0.45 (95%-CI 0.17-0.66).

Conclusion: In conclusion, the SQUASH is a fairly reliable and reasonably valid questionnaire and may be used to order subjects according to their level of physical activity in an adult population. Because the SQUASH is a short and simple questionnaire, it may proof to be a very useful tool for the evaluation of health enhancing physical activity in large populations.