Reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (PAQ-C)

Background/aim: The Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (PAQ-C) is one of the most frequently used questionnaires for evaluating moderate to vigorous levels of physical activity in children. However, a Turkish version of the questionnaire was not available. This study aimed to create a Turkish version of the PAQ-C and examine its psychometric characteristics and factor structure.

Materials and methods: The study was conducted with 784 primary school students (ages 9–14 years). The PAQ-C was examined for content and construct validity and analyzed in terms of reliability. Content validity was evaluated with the content validity index (CVI), construct validity, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (n = 388), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (n = 396). For reliability analysis, Cronbach’s alpha and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were calculated. The factor construct was assessed with corrected item total correlations (CITCs).

Results: The CVI for the PAQ-C was 0.95. EFA revealed a two-factor construct of ‘at school’ and ‘extracurricular’. CFA confirmed the two-factor construct. Factor loadings varied between 0.41 and 0.80. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.77 and ICC was 0.91 for the test-retest for the entire sample. All CITCs were >0.20

Conclusion: The PAQ-C is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used for Turkish children