Comparison of the Exercise Vital Sign Questionnaire With Accelerometry and Physical Activity Behaviors in People...

Physical activity (PA) confers many cardiometabolic health benefits to people living with HIV (PLWH). However, little is known about the PA behaviors and the psychometric properties of PA questionnaires in PLWH living in urban settings like New York City (NYC). The aims of our study are to evaluate the criterion validity and test-retest reliability of the Exercise Vital Sign (EVS) questionnaire among PLWH and evaluate the PA behaviors of PLWH residing in NYC. Participants (N = 100) wore a hip-mounted accelerometer for 7 days and completed the EVS questionnaire at baseline (T1) and postmonitoring (T2). A weak positive correlation was observed between the accelerometer-derived moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and EVS-reported MVPA at T2 (ρ = 0.352; p = .007). The EVS demonstrated a sensitivity of 85.2% and a specificity of 33.3%. Reliability was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficients = 0.904; p < .001). PLWH in NYC completed 57.1 ± 33.8 min/day of MVPA. The EVS is an acceptable questionnaire for use with PLWH; however, it shows limited accuracy in evaluating individuals not meeting PA guidelines. Among this sample of PLWH living in NYC, MVPA levels were higher than expected, which is encouraging given evidence that greater PA provides substantial health benefits.