[Reliability of a questionnaire to assess physical activity in normal weight adolescents and overweight].

Introduction: In recent years it has reported high levels of obesity associated with low levels of physical activity, which shows the need for assessment as elements of health and quality of life.

Objective: To verify the ability of reproducibility of a PA questionnaire in school adolescents classified as normal weight, overweight and obese.

Material And Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 1306 adolescent students (562 men and 744 women) from three municipal educational institutions of the province of Talca (Chile). The age range was from 12.0 to 17.9 years. Weight and height were assessed and body mass index was calculated. Cutoff points used CDC-2000 for nutritional classification categories (normal weight, overweight and obesity) was used. A survey of physical activity was applied to the three groups studied.

Results: 388 men and 533 women with normal weight were identified, 131 men and 169 overweight women, 43 men and 42 women with obesity. Both sexes showed high Cronbach alpha reliability values. In men (0.80 with normal weight, overweight 0.77 and 0.83 with obesity) and women (0.79 with normal weight, overweight 0.77 and 0.76 with obesity).

Conclusion: The instrument used showed high reproducibility capacity in both normal weight adolescents, overweight and obesity. These results suggest everyday use in survey to assess the patterns of AF scale, regardless of nutritional status in which they are located.