Reliability and validity of the Modifiable Activity Questionnaire (MAQ) in an Iranian urban adult population.

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study is to evaluate the validity and reliability of a Persian translation of the Modifiable Activity Questionnaire (MAQ) in a sample of adults from Tehran, Iran. METHODS There were 48 adults (53.1% males) enrolled to test the physical activity questionnaire. A sub-sample included 33 participants (45.5% males) who assessed the reliability of the physical activity questionnaire.The validity was tested in 25 individuals (48.0% males). The reliability of two MAQs was calculated by intraclass correlation coefficients. The validation study was evaluated with the Spearman correlation coefficients to compare data between the means of 2 MAQs and the means of 4 physical activity records. RESULTS Intraclass correlation coefficients between 2 MAQs for the previous year's leisure time was 0.94; for occupational, it was 0.98; and for total (leisure and occupational combined) physical activity, it was 0.97. The Spearman correlation coefficients between the means of the 2 MAQs and means of the 4 physical activity records was 0.39 (P = 0.05) for leisure time, 0.36 (P = 0.07) for occupational, and 0.47 (P = 0.01) for total (leisure and occupational combined) physical activities. CONCLUSION High reliability and relatively moderate validity were found for the Persian translated MAQ in adults from Tehran. However, further studies with larger sample sizes are suggested to more precisely assess the validity of the MAQ.