Atividade física e fatores associados em populações de área rural de Minas Gerais, uma experiência com o Questionário Internacional de Atividade Física - IPAQ

Abstract

The objective of this study was to estimate the physical activity levels addressing the four domains and its associated factors in adults living in rural areas. In addition, we tested the reliability and validity of International Physical Activity Questionnaire IPAQ in rural areas. We used the pedometer counts as an objective method for comparison with data from IPAQ. The levels of physical activity were collected from 567 adults in two communities in the Jequitinhonha Valley, situated in the northeast region of the state of Minas Gerais. A cut-off point of 150 minutes per week of physical activity was used. For the validity study, we used one subgroup of 82 individuals. In assessing the reliability of the IPAQ Spearman correlation coefficient ranged from 0.56 to 0.75. Kappa agreement between categorical variables showed values around 0.4 0.5, except at work, where kappa was 0.7. The absolute agreement ranged from 73.2% for household to 86.6% across all areas. The average number of steps was 12.027 ± 5.337. Spearman correlation coefficients between the number of steps measured by pedometer and physical activity for the first interview ranged from - 0.22 to 0.41 on household chores and at work domain. The highest levels of sensitivity and specificity of the IPAQ with respect to the reference method were found in work domain. In relation to levels of physical activity, the prevalence of individuals who reported performing at least 150 minutes per week of activity at work domain was 82.9% (95% CI: 77.8 to 88.0). In the household, 63.5% (95% CI: 59.6 to 67.4) of subjects achieved this level of physical activity; as in leisure transportation this varied between 10.1% (95% CI: 7.6 to 12.6) and 32.0% (95% CI: 28.2 to 35.8). After multivariate regression analysis, these variables remained independently associated with leisure physical activity: sex (PR 0.27, 95% CI 0.15 to 0.46), age (PR 0.16, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.60 for comparison between people aged 60 and over, and individuals aged 18-30), black people (PR 1.85, 95% CI 1.01 to 3.39) and schooling (PR 5.83, 95% CI 2.21 to 15.4 for the comparison between people with 9 or more years of schooling and those with no schooling). The results of this study indicate that the IPAQ in a Brazilian rural population had moderate to high reliability, which supports its use in rural populations. Regarding physical activity levels, the prevalence of physically active individuals was high, but levels of physical activity during leisure time were low and follow similar patterns to urban areas by age, sex and education.