UMass Amherst public health researcher updates and validates the ‘Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire’

A University of Massachusetts Amherst public health researcher has updated and validated the widely used Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire (PPAQ) to enhance the measurement performance of this self-report physical activity method.

Lisa Chasan-Taber, professor and chair of biostatistics and epidemiology, and her research group used novel and revolutionary tools – a sophisticated accelerometer and wearable camera – to evaluate PPAQ performance. The researchers developed the PPAQ in 2004 as the primary validated pregnancy physical activity questionnaire. Listed on the UMass Amherst timeline of research breakthroughs, the PPAQ is taken into account the gold standard in the sphere of prenatal physical activity epidemiology.

“We’re pleased to report that the updated PPAQ provides reliable and valid estimates of physical activity and sedentary behavior in pregnant women,” says Chasan-Taber, lead writer of the paper published today (June 8) within the American Journal of Epidemiology. “It is vital for public health researchers to have a toolbox of physical activity measurements – each self-report and objective measures similar to monitors – at their disposal.”

The paper points out that physical inactivity while pregnant is “an urgent public health concern,” implicated in a variety of conditions, including excessive gestational weight gain, gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia and pre-term birth.

The validated, updated PPAQ is a very important tool with quite a lot of applications to shut the knowledge gap on how best to quantify physical activity while pregnant.

The PPAQ has been translated into 13 languages to be used in 70 countries. Within the U.S., it’s a part of the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) study, a National Institutes of Health-supported longitudinal birth cohort across 35 centers. ECHO goals to know the results of early environmental influences on child health and development, in an effort to search out ways to boost it.

The PPAQ is utilized in surveillance studies to see how lively pregnant women are, it’s used to measure compliance with guidelines for activity while pregnant, to find out the optimal dose of physical activity for reducing risk of maternal and fetal disorders, and to guage the impact of exercise intervention studies.”

Lisa Chasan-Taber, professor and chair of biostatistics and epidemiology

In updating the PPAQ, the researchers aimed to benefit from advances over the past twenty years in calibration and validation methods and within the measurement of up to date sedentary behaviors, similar to texting and screen time.

“The accelerometer helps us validate the intensity of the activity, however it tells us nothing about what persons are doing,” Chasan-Taber says. “The camera takes repeated, frequent snapshots to find out the style of activity – was it sports, was it childcare, was it housekeeping? The 2 together provide a powerful representation.”

For the validation study, 50 participants in early, mid and late pregnancy accomplished the updated PPAQ and wore the accelerometer on their non-dominant wrist and the wearable camera on a lanyard around their neck for seven consecutive days. Afterward, they accomplished the PPAQ again. The information analyzed showed the PPAQ is a reliable and valid measure of a broad range of physical activities.

The novel validation study was supported by a grant from the NIH’s National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Co-authors include John Staudenmeyer, UMass Amherst professor of mathematics and statistics; Scott Strath, professor of kinesiology on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Patty Freedson, UMass Amherst professor emerita and chair of kinesiology; Susan Park, a UMass Amherst Ph.D. candidate in epidemiology; and Robert Marcotte, a UMass Amherst Ph.D. candidate in kinesiology.