Validity of self-reported fitness across black and white race, gender, and health literacy subgroups.

Purpose: To compare concurrent criterion validity of the Self-Reported Fitness (SRFit) Survey, a new fitness measure, between black and white race, gender, and health literacy groups.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Midwest urban primary care center and commercial fitness center.

Subjects: One hundred one black, white, male, and female primary care patients aged ≥40 years.

Measures: Measures included demographics, the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine, the SRFit Survey, and the Rikli and Jones Senior Fitness Test battery of physical tests. The BodPod determined percentage of body fat. Body mass index was calculated.

Analysis: Concurrent validity was assessed using Pearson and Spearman rank order correlations between corresponding physical tests and SRFit survey items.

Results: Correlations between physical tests and SRFit items ranged from r = .52 to .76 (ρ = .41-.85) in males, r = .40 to .79 (ρ = .33-.80) in females, r = .45 to .79 (ρ = .53-.82) in blacks, and r = .49 to .77 (ρ = .33-.82) in whites. Correlations were r = .58 (ρ = .58) to r = .77 (ρ = .79) in persons with low health literacy and r = .50 to .79 (ρ = .39-.85) among persons with moderate to high health literacy.

Conclusion: SRFit shows similar concurrent validity across race, gender, and health literacy subgroups.