Psychometric properties of the Physical Activity Scale modified for elderly women

PURPOSE: To adapt and validate the physical activities scale for older women. METHODS: The sample, selected for convenience, consisted of 50 women with an average age of 71.3 years (± 9.15). The adaptation was made from a scale that measures physical activity in a period of 24 hours, in a typical week day. The activities described and illustrated have been adapted accordingly to the logic of the original instrument which has nine levels of intensity ranging from lying/sleeping (0.9 METs) to high-intensity physical activities (> 6 METs). After having explored the face validity, a correction factor scale based on the assessment of 20 elderly was set. The concurrent validity between the corrected scale and the Kcal expenditure obtained by uniaxial sensors in 30 elderly were explored for three age groups (60 to 69, 70 to 79 and > 80 years). Descriptive statistics and measures of agreement plus dispersion plot diagrams were carried out (CI = 95%; \u3b1 = 5%). RESULTS: The results showed that both the validity (R = 0.67 and R = 0.74) and the reproducibility (R = 0.96 and R = 0.91) presented satisfactory levels of agreement for the elderly women, except for the older category (> 80 years). On the other hand, in the data dispersion diagrams the results suggested a greater range of data for the measures of validity. CONCLUSION: The adapted scale seems to be a simple alternative and reasonably valid measure of daily physical activity for older Brazilian women.