Development, validity, and reliability of home opportunities for physical activity (HOP) questionnaire for households with young children

Childhood obesity continues to have long-term health implications for millions of children in the United States. Physical activity is a key component to preventing obesity. Based on the Social Learning Theory and the concept of reciprocal determinism, behavior and environment interact with each other simultaneously and reciprocally. Thus, early identification of physical activity opportunities in and around the home is important to promote physical activity behaviors in young children. Few questionnaires exist that assess the availability, accessibility, and frequency of use of the physical activity (and media) opportunities in the home environment of young children. Existing ones are burdensome for parents, not suited for preschoolers, or do not report psychometric measures. The 52-item Home Opportunities for Physical activity (HOP) questionnaire was developed to address these limitations. HOP is a comprehensive questionnaire developed in an 8-step process that assesses availability, accessibility, and frequency of use of physical activity (and media) opportunities in the home environment encompassing inside and right outside the home/yard, as well as the neighborhood using 5-point Likert-type scales and checklists. Home visits were conducted in 50 homes of parents of young children to administer the questionnaire and conduct an objective assessment by researchers to establish criterion validity. Approximately 2 weeks later, parents completed the same questionnaire online for test-retest reliability. Intra-Class Correlations (ICCs) to assess criterion validity of scales ranged from 0.29 to 0.82. Most scales had substantial to almost perfect agreement between parents and researchers, while lower agreements were found for Physical Activity Availability and Accessibility Inside the Home scales and Accessibility Outside the Home (Yard) scale. ICCs to assess test-retest reliability of scales ranged from 0.77 to 0.95. All scales had excellent or good test-retest reliability. Cronbach’s alphas to assess internal consistency reliability for the scales ranged from 0.46 to 0.85. Majority of the scales were acceptable, except for Physical Activity Accessibility Outside the Home (Yard) scale and Media Accessibility Inside the Home. HOP is an easy-to-use, reliable, and valid questionnaire for parents of young children to use to assess their home environment for physical activity (and sedentary activity) opportunities.M.S.Includes bibliographical referencesby Carolyn Chen