Validity of the Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (PPAQ-SF).

Area of Science:

• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Exercise Physiology
• Public Health

Background:

• Assessing physical activity levels during pregnancy is crucial for maternal and fetal health.
• Existing questionnaires can be lengthy, posing challenges for participant compliance.
• A validated short-form questionnaire is needed for efficient data collection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (PPAQ-SF).
• To evaluate the PPAQ-SF's validity against objective measures (ActiGraph) and longer questionnaire forms.
• To assess the reproducibility of the PPAQ-SF across different stages of pregnancy.

Main Methods:

• A prospective cohort of 50 pregnant participants completed the PPAQ (long-form) and wore an ActiGraph for 7 days.
• The PPAQ-SF was derived from the top ten questions contributing most to variance in total MET-hours/day.
• Validity was assessed using Spearman correlations against ActiGraph data and an external dataset (N=222) comparing PPAQ-SF with PPAQ long-forms.

Main Results:

• Spearman correlations between PPAQ-SF and ActiGraph for MVPA MET-hours/day were 0.34 overall and ranged from 0.21 (early) to 0.49 (mid) pregnancy.
• In the external dataset, PPAQ-SF showed high correlations (r=0.94-0.99) with PPAQ long-forms.
• Reproducibility ranged from 0.35 (early) to 0.77 (mid) pregnancy.

Conclusions:

• The PPAQ-SF provides a time-efficient measure of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during pregnancy.
• The PPAQ-SF demonstrates acceptable validity when compared to objective measures and longer questionnaires.
• Reproducibility is reasonable, especially in mid-pregnancy, supporting its use in research and clinical settings.