Abstract
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to produce a valid and reliable Persian version of the Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity (RAPA) questionnaire, which previously has been shown to be valid and reliable for assessing physical activity among older adults. METHODS: Permission was obtained from the scale developer, who provided a copy of the the Linguistic Validation of the RAPA Qestionnaire, which utilizes a forward-backward translation methodology. Content validity, face validity, and construct validity of the questionnaire were then determined. Comparison of known groups (older adults with more or less than 50% balance confidence) was used to assess construct validity and the Leiden-Padua (LEIPAD) quality of life questionnaire were used to assess convergent validity. Three hundred older adults, who were members of the Qom retirement centers, participated in the study. Thirty participants completed the RAPA twice with a one-week interval to determine test-retest reliability. RESULTS: Results of comparisons of known groups showed that the mean RAPA score of the older people with greater balance confidence was significantly higher. Significant correlations between most of the scores obtained from both RAPA and the LEIPAD questionnaires confirmed the convergent validity of the questionnaire. Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was as high as 0.94 showing that the test-retest reliability was good. CONCLUSION: This study showed the Persian RAPA is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring physical activity among older individuals in both research and clinical contexts.