CHAMPS physical activity questionnaire for older adults: outcomes for interventions

Purpose: To evaluate effectively interventions to increase physical activit y among older persons. reliable and valid measures of physical activity are required that can also detect the expected types of physical activity chan ges in this population. This paper describes a self-report physical activit y questionnaire for older men and women, developed to evaluate the outcomes of the Community Healthy Activities Model Program for Seniors (CHAMPS), an intervention to increase physical activity. Methods: The questionnaire ass esses weekly frequency and duration of various physical activities typicall y undertaken by older adults. We estimated caloric expenditure/wk expended in physical activity and created a summary frequency/wk measure. We calcula ted measures of each of these for: 1) activities of at least moderate inten sity (MET value greater than or equal to 3.0); and 2) all specified physica l activities, including those of light intensity. Six-month stability was e stimated on participants not likely to change (assessment-only control grou p. physically active cohort). Several tests of construct validity were cond ucted, and sensitivity to change was analyzed based on response to the CHAM PS intervention. Results: The sample (N = 249) comprised underactive person s (N = 173 from the CHAMPS trial) and active persons (N = 76). The sample w as aged 65-90 yr(mean = 74, SD = 6): 64% were women, and 9% were minorities . Six-month stability ranged from 0.58 to 0.67, using intraclass correlatio n coefficients. Nearly all construct validity hypotheses were confirmed, th ough correlations were modest. All measures were sensitive to change (P les s than or equal to 0.01), with small to moderate effect sizes (0.38-0.64). Conclusions: The CHAMPS measure may be useful for evaluating the effectiven ess of programs aimed at increasing levels of physical activity in older ad ults.