Revision of the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q)

Area of Science:

• Exercise Physiology
• Public Health
• Health Screening

Background:

• The original Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q) frequently excluded healthy older adults from exercise programs.
• An expert committee revised the PAR-Q to minimize unnecessary participant exclusions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare participant responses between the original and revised PAR-Q questionnaires.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of the revised PAR-Q in reducing unnecessary exclusions.

Main Methods:

• A comparative study involving 399 men and women across 40 Canadian fitness testing centers.
• Analysis of responses to both the original and revised PAR-Q formats.

Main Results:

• The revised PAR-Q significantly reduced the number of individuals screened out (from 68 to 48 out of 399).
• The reduction was partly due to fewer erroneous positive responses regarding high blood pressure.

Conclusions:

• The revised PAR-Q wording has successfully reduced positive responses, particularly concerning blood pressure.
• The updated questionnaire is more effective in screening individuals for exercise testing and prescription, especially older adults.