The Inventory of Physical Activity Barriers for Community-Dwelling Adults 50 Years of Age and Older: Development and Preliminary Validation

Background: Health care providers, including physical therapists, need to identify the reasons for insufficient physical activity (PA) to assist the 56% to 73% of community-dwelling adults 50 years of age and older who are not performing the recommended 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous PA. Currently, there is no feasible, multifactorial tool to assess PA barriers among this population. Without a tool, health care providers must either rely on self-generated questions or collate results from multiple assessments to identify PA barriers related to personal, social, and environmental factors, which can be time-consuming and incomplete. Purpose: To develop the Inventory of Physical Activity Barriers (IPAB), an assessment tool that examines personal, social, and environmental PA barriers. Methods: We developed and psychometrically evaluated the IPAB using a 3-phase process. For phase 1, we used a deductive method to develop the initial scale. During phase 2, we refined the scale and explored its psychometric properties by collecting cross-sectional pilot data on community-dwelling adults 50 years of age and older. We used descriptive statistics, item-scale correlations, construct validity via Mann-Whitney U test, and internal consistency via Cronbach alpha to analyze the data from phase 2. After identifying the scale's potential for being valid and reliable, we implemented phase 3, a modified Delphi technique. Results: Using item-scale correlations, descriptive statistics, and consensus among PA experts, we refined the initial scale from 172 items to 40 items. The 40-item IPAB demonstrated good construct validity (determined by the scale's ability to differentiate between individuals who did and did not meet 150 min/wk of moderate to vigorous PA; P = .01) and internal consistency (Cronbach alpha of 0.97). Conclusion: Our preliminary results suggest that the IPAB is valid and reliable. Using the IPAB, health care providers will be able to identify patients' PA barriers and thus develop individualized PA prescriptions, an evidence-based method of increasing PA.

Automated summary

This study developed the Inventory of Physical Activity Barriers (IPAB), a tool to assess personal, social, and environmental barriers to physical activity (PA). Through a 3-phase process, the researchers refined the IPAB to 40 items with good construct validity and internal consistency. By using the IPAB, healthcare providers can identify patients' PA barriers and develop individualized PA prescriptions.