Criterion Validity of the Yale Physical Activity Survey (YPAS) in Croatian Older Adults

The Yale Physical Activity Survey (YPAS) is one of the most commonly used questionnaires to assess physical activity (PA) levels in older adults. Although previous studies have explored its validity properties against accelerometry, to date, no evidence has been provided in Croatian older adults. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to examine whether the YPAS is a valid tool for measuring PA levels.

A total of 46 older women (mean age 72.3±1.2 years) were recruited from three randomly selected public residential aged-care facilities. During the first stage, all participants wore a triaxial GENEActiv accelerometer on their non-dominant hand for 7 consecutive days. After the wearing period, the participants completed the YPAS questionnaire. The correlations between the YPAS and GENEActiv data were calculated using Spearman's order-rank coefficients.

The YPAS total PA was positively and moderately correlated with the number of steps, light and moderate PA, and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA; ρ=0.48-0.64), yet a low positive correlation was found with vigorous PA (ρ=0.33). The YPAS total energy expenditure (EE) and the number of stairs performance showed similar correlation patterns with GENEActiv accelerometry data as the total PA (ρ=0.33-0.64). The summary index score exhibited moderate and positive correlations with the number of steps, light, moderate, and vigorous PA and MVPA (ρ=0.28-0.49).

This study shows that the YPAS is a valid tool for assessing PA patterns in older Croatian adults.