LE3 .A278 2012

2012

Fowles, Jonathon

Acadia University

Bachelor of Kinesiology

Honours

Kinesiology

Kinesiology

As physical activity levels have declined in society, the incidence of chronic disease has increased, particularly type 2 diabetes. Although it is evident that physical activity and exercise are primary means to prevent and treat type 2 diabetes, most individuals with diabetes are inactive. Currently, few health care practitioners evaluate or discuss physical activity or fitness as a routine component in healthcare. Diabetes educators stand in a good position to counsel and monitor the physical activity and fitness levels of their clients; however, they lack the confidence, time, and resources to do so. The Diabetes Physical Activity and Exercise Toolkit has been created to provide enhanced support and guidance on physical activity counseling and monitoring of clients. The ‘Toolkit’ has increased confidence in healthcare professionals in physical activity counseling; however, there is still much room for improvement. For instance, only one third of the clinicians report using the toolkit as much as planned. Given that clinicians are only able to monitor what they can manage, they would, therefore benefit from a valid and reliable tool that can quickly assess physical activity participation of their clients, such as a short physical activity questionnaire. The present study tested the validity of a newly designed physical activity questionnaire in accurately assessing physical activity and physical fitness level in the adult population. The goal after the validation is to apply the new questionnaire in the clinical setting. By comparing subjective questionnaires to objective measures of physical activity and physical fitness, we observed that the new questionnaire does not correlate with objective measures. The questionnaire does, however, serve as a form of initiation in physical activity and exercise discussion.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:912