Cut-off values for classifying active children and adolescents using the Physical Activity Questionnaire: PAQ-C and PAQ-A

Introduction: The Physical Activity Questionnaire for children and adolescents (PAQ-C &amp; PAQ-A) has been widely used in research and field settings. However, there is a lack of information about its final score meaning. Objective: To determine PAQ-C and PAQ-A score cut-off values using physical activity (PA) thresholds objectively measured as reference criteria. Methods: 146 children (n = 83 boys, n = 63 girls) and 234 adolescents (n = 115 boys, n = 119 girls) participated in this study. Accelerometers (Actigraph GT3X) were used to assess objectively PA during one-week, afterwards PAQ was filled by the participants. As participants met or not the international PA recommendations for total, moderate-vigorous (MVPA) or light PA, three categorical variables of two levels were created. ROC curves procedure were carried out to obtain score cut-off points for identifying the positive category recommendation. Results: ROC curves analysis estimated 2.75 and 2.73 score cut-off points to discriminate &gt; 60 minutes of MVPA for PAQ-A and PAQ-C respectively (PAQ-A AUC = 0.68, p < 0.001 and PAQ-C; AUC = 0.55, p &gt; 0.05). Also 60 minutes of MVPA was achieved with a total volume of 10,664 steps/day in children and 9,701 steps/day in adolescents. Conclusions: Our results suggest that PAQ-A can be a useful tool to classify adolescents as active or inactive following international recommendations as criteria. However, we could not find a significant cut-off for PAQ-C score.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Benítez-Porres,Javier, Alvero-Cruz,José Ramón, Sardinha,Luis B., López-Fernández,Iván, Carnero,Elvis A.
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Grupo Arán 2016
Online Access:http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0212-16112016000500005
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