Validity of the Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire for Maternal Recall

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the validity of the Pregnancy Physical Activity (PA) Questionnaire (PPAQ) for long-term PA recall. Forty-eight women completed the PPAQ at 21, 32 weeks gestation, and 12 weeks postpartum. These women were emailed three separate PPAQs between two months and eight years after originally completing the questionnaires to recall their PA during those same time periods. Total number of metabolic (MET) minutes per week (MET-min*wk⁻¹) and percent time spent in light (%L), moderate (%M), and vigorous (%V) activity were compared between the original and long-term recall PPAQ values. Total MET-min*wk⁻¹ and %M were significantly underestimated by 3000–4000 MET-min*wk⁻¹ and 6%, respectively, and %L was overestimated by 4–6% (p < .05). Women reported spending little time in vigorous intensity activity (2–4%). Spearman correlations were lower for women who recalled PA ≥five years postpartum compared to women who recalled their PA <five years postpartum. However, these values were not significantly different (p > .05).

KEYWORDS:

• Exercise
• postpartum
• measurement
• epidemiology

Declaration of interests

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. This manuscript has not been published in any other place and has not been submitted simultaneously for publication elsewhere.