Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (PAQ-C) and Adolescents (PAQ-A)
Descriptive Information
Title, Edition, Dates of Publication and Revision: Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (PAQ-C) and Adolescents (PAQ-A), University of Saskatchewan, Canada, 1997, 2004
Authors: Kent C Kowalski, PhD, Peter RE Crocker, PhD, Rachel M Donen Bsc. Honours
Source: Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (PAQ-C) and Adolescents (PAQ-A) Manual; or online at www.performwell.org
Costs: Forms are free online or from questionnaire manual
Purpose: To assess general levels of physical activity for youth from grades 4-12 (ages 8-20 years old)
Type of Test: Self Report Questionnaire (7 day recall)
Target Population and Ages: PAQ-C à Elementary and Middle School (Grades 4-8, ages 8-14), PAQ-A à High school (grades 9-12, ages 14-19)
Time Requirements: Estimated completion time is 20 minutes
Test Administration
Administration: Self report questionnaire
Scoring: PAQ-C à Find an activity score between 1 and 5 for each item (1-9, excluding 10), a score of 1 indicates low physical activity and a score of 5 indicates high physical activity. Item 1: take the mean of all activities to form a composite score for the item. Item 2-8: Use the reported value that is checked for each item. Item 9: Take the mean of all days of the week to form a composite score. Item 10: Can be used to identify students who had unusual activity during the previous week, but not used as a part of the summary activity score. Final Activity Score: Once you have a 1-5 value for each item, take the mean of items 1-9, resulting in the PAQ-C summary score. PAQ-A à Find an activity score between 1 and 5 for each item, excluding item 9, a score of 1 indicates low physical activity and a score of 5 indicates high physical activity. Item 1: Take the mean of all activities to form a composite score. Item 2-7: Use the reported value that is checked for each item. Item 8: Take the mean of all days of the week to form a composite score. Item 9: Can be used to identify students who had unusual activity during the previous week, but not used as a part of the summary activity score. Final Activity Score: Once you have a 1-5 value for each item, take the mean of items 1-8, resulting in the PAQ-A summary score. (7,8)
Type of information resulting from testing: Mean composite score on a range of 1 to 5, a score of 1 indicates low physical activity and a score of 5 indicates high physical activity. (3)
Environment for Testing: School system, or outside of school during school year
Equipment and Materials Needed: Pencil, questionnaire
Examiner Qualifications: None
Psychometric Characteristics: PAQ-A validity correlation coefficients (between PAQ-A and activity monitor) = moderate (rho=0.56 and 0.63), Reliability for the PAQ-C and PAQ-A = Cronbach alphas ranging from 0.72 to 0.88 (represents good internal consistency), 1 week test-retest reliability (r = 0.75 to 0.82)
Standardization/normative data: Cut off points: >9 for boys, >2.7 for girls
Evidence of Reliability: Considered to be moderate, mainly used in the US and Canada (1,2,4)
Evidence of Validity: Consistently high validity against multiple direct measures (1,2,4)
Discriminative: Can be used to discriminate between “at risk” and “no risk”
Predictive: Has demonstrated a good ability to estimate total activity
Summary Comments
Strengths: The PAQ-A and PAQ-C have been found to valid and reliable measures of physical activity. It uses “memory cues” to enhance recall ability of the youth taking the test. It is cost efficient as it is free, as well as time efficient. It is also easy to administer.
Weaknesses: The PAQ-A and PAQ-C provides a general measure of physical activity rather than specific information about caloric expenditure, frequency, time, and intensity. The tests result in a summary score instead of looking at different intensities of exercise. The test is only appropriate when used during the school year and not during the summer or holidays.
Clinical Applications: This PAQ-C and PAQ-A can be used for children within the school systems from elementary through high school to determine a general measure of their physical activity. The overall score provides a point on a range of physical activity and can indicate a youth at risk with little physical activity or one at no risk who participates in a lot of physical activity. It is an easy to administer self report test that provide at least a starting place to get a general sense of the youth’s physical activity level.
References
- Crocker PRE, Bailey DA, Faulkner RA, Kowalski KC, McGrath R. Measuring general levels of physical activity: preliminary evidence for the physical activity questionnaire for older children. Med Sci Sport Exer. October 1997;29(10):1344-1349.
- Janz KF, Lutuchy EM, Wenthe P, Levy SM. Measuring activity in children and adolescents using self-report: PAQ-C and PAQ-A. Med Sci Sport Exer. April 2008;40(4):767-772.
- Kowalski KC, Crocker PRE, Faulkner RA. Validation of the physical activity questionnaire for older children. Pediatr Exerc Sci. 1997;9:174-186.
- Richardson D, Cavill N, Roberts K, Ells L. Measuring diet and physical activity in weight management interventions: a briefing paper. Oxford: National Obesity Observatory;2011.
- Kowalski KC, Crocker PRE, Donen RM. The physical activity questionnaire for older children (PAQ-C) and adolescents (PAQ-A) manual. Saskatoon, SK, Canada: University of Saskatchewan;2004.
- Voss C, Ogunleye AA, Sandercock GRH. Physical activity questionnaire for children and adolescents: English norms and cut-off points. Pediatr Int. 2013;55:498-507.
- Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (PAQ-C). Perform Well. http://www.performwell.org/index.php/find-surveyassessments/outcomes/health-a-safety/good-health-habits/physical-activity-questionnaire-for-children#popup Accessed March 13, 2015.
- Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PAQ-A). Perform Well. http://www.performwell.org/index.php/find-surveyassessments/outcomes/health-a-safety/good-health-habits/physical-activity-questionnaire-for-adolescents#popup Accessed March 13, 2015.
Article Summary:
Santos-Silva R, Melo C, Goncalves D, Coelho J, Carvalho F. Comparison between exercise performance in asthmatic children and healthy controls – physical activity questionnaire application. Rev Port Pneumol. 2014;20(3):138-145.
Santos-Silva et al. investigated whether there was difference in levels of physical activity between healthy children and children with asthma, as it has been found by other studies that higher levels of physical activity improves asthma and symptoms. The current study conducted a descriptive comparative study in which there were two groups of children in Portugal, healthy controls and children with asthma, were administered the PAQ. The asthmatic children had a confirmed diagnosis of asthma and had been asymptomatic for at least 6 months. Healthy controls were from a local high school. The researchers collected 313 valid questionnaires, 155 from children with asthma and 158 healthy controls. Results showed a statistically significant difference for Item 1 in skipping (p=0.000), in-line skating (p=0.012), cycling (p=.005), aerobics/hip-hop (p=0.002), swimming (p=0.000), ballet/dance (p=0.042), football (p=0.017), volleyball (p=0.024), athletics (0.023), and martial arts (0.024). Items 2-7 showed that healthy children were more active (p=0.011) in physical education classes than children with asthma, as well as tended to participate more in sports in the evening (p=0.036). Finally, item 8 showed no statistically significant differences. Overall, children with asthma averaged a final summary score of 2.40 and healthy children a score of 2.48. As such, there were no significant differences in overall physical activity levels as measured by the PAQ (p=0.32). For this study, the PAQ was an effective questionnaire due to the amount of participants as it is time efficient and cost effective. A limitation noted by the authors is that the PAQ is developed for the Canadian population, rather than those in Portugal, and physical activities differ amongst the two populations. The summary of this article is that while it may be the parents’ perceptions that asthma has an effect on the physical activity of their children, the current study suggests that those with asthma are as physically fit and active as healthy children. However, there is a need to promote physical activity within this population to protect all aspects of health and education is important to avoid inducing dyspnea.
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This is the form that we used in our Kinect study during first year to assess how active each child was. It was simple to administer, the children were able to complete it easily, and it was easy to score. I agree that this gives you good quantitative data on whether or not a child is at risk for a more sedentary lifestyle, but that it is not as accurate as a more detailed account of caloric expenditure. This is of course why it is so much easier to do though! Also, it is alarming how different the cutoff scores are for girls and boys. It just reaffirms that we need to intervene early to promote physically active lifestyles in children, especially with young girls. Great work! We will have to tell the first years about this so that they can use this information to choose outcome measures if they choose to continue our research.