Physical Activity in the Park Setting (PA-PS) Questionnaire: Reliability in a California Statewide Sample

Background: The Physical Activity in Parks Setting (PA-PS) instrument is a series of survey questions designed by a consortium of public health and leisure research scholars to gauge park-based physical activity for use in civilian, noninstitutionalized populations. This paper introduces this self-reported instrument and provides test-retest reliability results. Methods: Data to test the instrument reliability were collected during 2 waves in 2008 through the California Outdoor Recreation Opinions and Attitudes Telephone Survey. To conduct test-retest reliability we examined the agreement between 100 randomly reselected respondents from the first wave of respondents (n = 2004) that answered the same survey within 21 to 30 days of the initial administration. Results: The reliability of measures that categorized individual park use and visitation with others provided moderate levels of agreement (Kappa = 0.44 to 0.64). Questions about park features, facilities and amenity use, and specific park-based physical activity participation were of fair to substantial agreement (Kappa = 0.21 to 0.90) depending on the item in question. Conclusion: The results from these test-retest reliability analyses suggest the PA-PS items were reliable and should be considered in future population surveys that assess park visitation patterns and park-based physical activity levels.