[Measurement of physical activity in older adults. Correlation between the PRISCUS-PAQ and accelerometry]

Z Gerontol Geriatr. 2012 Apr;45(3):212-7. doi: 10.1007/s00391-011-0264-4.
[Article in German]

Abstract

Background: The German questionnaire PRISCUS-PAQ was developed to measure actual physical activity of older adults in a telephone interview. PRISCUS-PAQ consists of ten main questions to assess the time spend in domestic activities (e.g., housework, gardening), sporting activities (e.g., riding a bicycle), and inactivity (e.g., sedentary activity, sleeping during the day) during the prior week. By assessing the number of days for each activity and the mean duration of performing this activity, a total score can be calculated. The total score corresponds to the energy consumption for 1 week. The aim of this study is to estimate the correlation of the PRISCUS-PAQ total score and accelerometry as an objective measurement method for the assessment of physical activity.

Material and methods: A total of 114 participants (58% women) with a mean age of 76 years participated in the study. PRISCUS-PAQ was initially analyzed descriptively. To assess the validity of PRISCUS-PAQ, the correlation (correlation coefficient of Spearman) was calculated between the total score of the questionnaire PRISCUS-PAQ and the 95% trimmed sum of an accelerometer with a measurement period of 1 week.

Results: The correlation coefficient for the association of the PRISCUS-PAQ total score and the 95% trimmed sum of the acceleration values was r = 0.28 (95% confidence interval 0.10–0.44). Activities of daily life like cleaning and other domestic activities highly contributed to the weekly energy consumption of the participants.

Conclusion: The association between the PRISCUS-PAQ questionnaire and accelerometry measured physical activity is comparable to other validated and established international questionnaires. The PRISCUS-PAQ is the first German questionnaire that allows the measurement of physical activity of older adults in a telephone interview.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • English Abstract

MeSH terms

  • Acceleration*
  • Actigraphy / methods*
  • Actigraphy / statistics & numerical data*
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Female
  • Geriatric Assessment / methods
  • Geriatric Assessment / statistics & numerical data*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Monitoring, Ambulatory / methods
  • Monitoring, Ambulatory / statistics & numerical data
  • Motor Activity / physiology*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Statistics as Topic
  • Surveys and Questionnaires*