Turkish version of the SPAN questionnaire for highschool students: reproducibility and validity

This study aimed to generate a Turkish version of the School Physical Activity and Nutrition (SPAN) (2009) questionnaire for high-school students and to test its validity and reproducibility. The questionnaire was translated and back translated and the language validity was assessed. It was tested and re-tested on 318 highschool students to evaluate its validity and reproducibility. Validity was determined by comparing the parts of the questionnaire about what was eaten in the previous day with that of 24-hour food consumption lists. Statistical analysis was performed by using Spearman correlation analysis, kappa statistics and percentage of agreement. The highest test-re-test results were on foods consumed the day before, with an agreement percentage range of 56%-96% and a kappa range of 0.43-0.95. The items related to physical activity had an agreement range of 38%-88% and a kappa range of 0.24-0.82. The reproducibility and validity of the Turkish version of SPAN questionnaire is acceptable and it is a rapid, easily used tool for the assessment of nutrition and physical activity in schoolchildren.