Translation of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire to Maltese and reliability testing

The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) is a widely used self-reported physical activity (PA) measure at population level, developed to allow for international cross-country comparisons. Due to its unavailability, the aim of this study was to translate the IPAQ-long to Maltese and undertake reliability testing. The IPAQ-long English version was translated into Maltese following the IPAQ guidelines which included backwards translation. Maltese speaking participants, aged between 18 and 69 years, were recruited through convenience sampling (n = 170). Participants completed the IPAQ-long twice within an 8 to 48 hour period between completions. PA was calculated in MET minutes per week and reliability was calculated using Spearman correlation, interclass correlation coefficient (ICC), concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) and Bland Altman plots. 155 participants completed the questionnaire at two time points. Spearman correlation was 0.83 (0.76-0.88) for total PA and 0.84 (0.77-0.89) for total sitting time. The ICC was 0.83 (0.76-0.88) and CCC 0.75-0.87 for total PA. The lowest reliability was for total transport with CCC of 0.21-0.45. Bland Altman plots highlight that 95% of the differences fell within 2 standard deviations from the mean. Since the Maltese IPAQ-long has similar reliability to the English version, we recommend healthcare professionals and physical activity practitioners use this tool when examining population level PA amongst Maltese speaking individuals.