Reliability and validity of international physical activity questionnaire, Bahasa Malaysia version: a preliminary study

Abstract

The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), a standardised method for assessing physical activity, has been tested at 14 centres in 12 countries on adults aged 18 to 65 years. However, there is no standardised instrument to determine levels of physical activity amongst Malay-speaking adults in Malaysia. The aim of this study was to develop the IPAQ Bahasa Malaysia version (IPAQ-BM), test its psychometric values and determine the gap (under or over estimation) in levels of physical activity in a pilot study involving multi-ethnic Malaysians. The IPAQ (long form) was translated into Bahasa Malaysia (IPAQ-BM), culturally adapted and content validated. The correlation between the IPAQ-BM and the accelerometer were low to moderate (r=0.13-0.41). The IPAQ-BM overestimated the accelerometer by 416% for vigorous intensity activity and only 1.6% for moderate intensity activity in this group. Future studies involving stratified sampling for several age groups and larger samples are warranted.

Keywords: Validity; Reliability; Physical activity; Accelerometer; Estimations; IPAQ