Development of the Barriers to Physical Activity Questionnaire for People with Mobility Impairments

Abstract

Background Despite the widely known benefits of physical activity, people with disabilities are more likely to be inactive when compared to people without disabilities. Previous questionnaires that measure barriers physical activity for people with disabilities do not measure barriers from an ecological perspective. Objective The purpose of this study was to develop the Barriers to Physical Activity Questionnaire for People with Mobility Impairments (BPAQ-MI) that measures barriers using an ecological framework. Methods This study consisted of two phases. In Phase one, developed the content validity by (a) developing an item bank, (b) identifying missing items and combining items using a Delphi panel, and (c) refine item wording via cognitive interviews. In Phase two, people with mobility impairments took part in in-person interviews to establish test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and construct validity of the BPAQ-MI. Results Exploratory factor analysis revealed the BPAQ-MI was comprised of eight subscales or factors: health; beliefs and attitudes; family; friends; fitness center built environment; staff and policy; community built environment; and safety. The BPAQ-MI demonstrated very good test-retest reliability. Cronbach’s alpha ranged from 0.792 to 0.935. The BPAQ-MI showed significant negative correlations with exercise (minutes/week) and significant positive correlations between BPAQ-MI subscales and inactivity (hours/day). Conclusions The BPAQ-MI is the first questionnaire that places greater equity at measuring barriers to physical activity across the intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, and community domains. The BPAQ-MI has the potential to assist researchers in understanding the complex relationship between barriers and ultimately develop physical activity interventions that address these barriers.

Development of the Physical Activity Barriers Scale for Elderly Individuals

“…Individuals who have more PA barriers are expected to perform less PA. Similarly, there was a negative relationship between PA barriers and PA levels in other studies (6,22).…”

A concerns report survey of physical activity support needs of people with moderate-to-severe MS disability and family caregivers

“…The third section gathered information on barriers to co-participation in physical activity. No existing measures were available, so the team selected and adapted items from instruments used in previous studies involving the general population and people with chronic health conditions including MS [27][28][29][30]. Participants were asked to consider when participating in physical activity together with the person with MS or caregiver (depending on the primary respondent) and rate the extent to which each barrier might impede co-participation on a scale of 1 (very small barrier) to 5 (very big barrier) [27].…”

Health Status and Lifestyle of the Mentally and Physically Disabled

“…For this type of research, validated questionnaires called specific questionnaire are used. They are focused on the disease entity, Health Related Quality of Life -HRQOL, (Vasudevan et al, 2015;Ferrans and Powers, 1992;Bowling et al, 2013;Herdman et al, 1998). WHO clarified the concept of quality of life by indicating that it is an individual way of perceiving by an individual their life position in a specific value system, in relation to standards set by the environment (Shields et al, 2012).…”

“…The lifestyle of the group indicated includes socially shaped patterns of behavior that the group adopted and uses to cope with life (Anderson et al, 2020). The individual's lifestyle consists of individual choices related to the attitude to work, study, physical activity and rest (Vasudevan et al, 2015). Therefore, the selected questions in the questionnaire, on the basis of which the research was conducted in the article, include the issues of lifestyle determining the social activity of people with learning disabilities, work, living conditions, physical activity, and opportunities to function in the environment.…”