Test-Retest Reliability of Yale Physical Activity Survey Among Older Mexican American Adults: A Pilot Investigation

Abstract

The objective of the work reported in this paper is to assess test-retest reliability of Yale Physical Activity Survey Total Time, Estimated Energy Expenditure, Activity Dimension Indices, and Activities Checklist in older Mexican American men and women. A convenience-based healthy sample of 49 (42 women and 7 men) older Mexican American adults recruited from senior recreation centers aged 68 to 80 years volunteered to participate in this pilot study. Forty-nine older Mexican American adults filled out the Yale Physical Activity Survey for this study. Fifteen (12 women and 3 men) of the 49 volunteers responded twice to the Yale Physical Activity Survey after a 2-week period, and helped assess the test-retest reliability of the Yale Physical Activity Survey. Results indicate that based on a 2-week test-retest administration, the Yale Physical Activity Survey was found to have moderate (ρ_I = .424, p < .05) to good reliability (r_s = .789, p < .01) for physical activity assessment in older Mexican American adults who responded.

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of older adults who participated in this study. The University of Texas at El Paso provided significant financial support for this project. The analysis in this paper was partly supported by a grant (NIH grant number 2S06GM008012-330049) from the National Institutes of Health. The authors also thank Drs. George King and Karen Coleman at UTEP for their assistance with interpretation of study results, and Dr. Julia Bader at the UTEP Statistical Consulting Laboratory for assistance with data analysis. Ruben Rivera, Lara Chiu, Karina Lucera, Elizabeth Pardo, Haydee Montes, Unnamalai Annamalai, and Kadambary Reddy assisted with data collection activities. The authors thank the Associate Editor and two anonymous reviewers of this paper for significantly improving the content and presentation in this paper.