Introduction:

The Brief Physical Activity Assessment Tool (BPAAT, as it stands in English) for primary care was designed with the aim of evaluating the same physical activity dimensions as measured by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ, as it stands in English), but more effectively.

Objective:

To determine the usefulness of the short BPAAT questionnaire to measure physical activity in a Cuban population.

Methods:

A cross-sectional and observational-descriptive study was carried out with a sample of 230 people from two health areas of Plaza de la Revolution Municipality, in order to evaluate the usefulness of this questionnaire. Prior to its use in the study, the cultural adaptation of the questionnaire was done. Agreement between the IPAQ and BPAAT questionnaires was estimated with the Kappa coefficient. It was determined whether the proportion of sufficiently active subjects (AS) was greater than 71 % in the questionnaires.

Results:

The most represented group was that of 50-64 years (41.7 %). The average level of physical activity accumulated in a week was 1236.7 caloric equivalents (MET's), which is in correspondence with the moderate category. The level of agreement between the questionnaires was considerable (k = 0.774). There was a negative correlation between degree of physical activity, age (p = 0.001), and body mass index (p < 0.0001).

Conclusions:

The BPAAT questionnaire has a considerable degree of agreement with the short version of the IPAQ. Most of the subjects to whom the BPAAT was applied were in the SA category, making it suitable as a tool for measuring physical activity in the population studied.

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