Research: current research
The Yale Physical Activity Survey for older adults: Predictions in the energy expenditure due to physical activity

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Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the accuracy of the Yale Physical Activity Survey (YPAS) for older adults.

Design

Fourteen-week strictly controlled diet study.

Subjects/setting

Eleven men and 17 women, age range 55 to 78 years, spent 10 weeks in an outpatient setting and 4 weeks in an inpatient setting at the General Clinical Research Center, Noll Physiological Research Center, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park.

Intervention

Subjects were provided dietary energy to maintain body weight within ±0.5 kg of baseline weight. The daily menus contained 0.8 g protein per kilogram body weight and nonprotein energy as 60% carbohydrate and 40% fat.

Main outcome measures

Metabolizable energy intake (MEI) was measured at week 14 from the gross energy contents of food, urine, and feces, with corrections for any body composition changes during the last 6 weeks of weight maintenance. Resting energy expenditure (REE) was determined using indirect calorimetry. The thermic effect of feeding (TEF) was estimated to be 10% of the MEI. The energy expenditure due to physical activity (EEPA) was derived by the formula: EEPA=MEI−REE−TEF. This value was compared with the EEPA estimated from the YPAS.

Statistical analyses performed

Two-factor analysis of variance with repeated measures and paired t tests.

Results

At week 14, after a minimum of 6 weeks of sustained weight stability, the derived EEPA was not different from that estimated using the YPAS for the men and the men and women combined, while the YPAS estimate was more than the measured mean value for the women (P<.05). There was wide variability in the accuracy of the EEPA prediction for individual subjects (range=−637 to 794 kcal).

Applications/conclusions

The YPAS may be used, with caution, to estimate the EEPA for groups of older individuals, and may provide inaccurate estimates of the EEPA in older individuals.

Section snippets

Subjects

Eleven men and 17 women, age range 55 to 78 years, volunteered to participate in this study. Subject recruitment and eligibility have been described elsewhere (13). Each participant signed a written consent form in accord with approval by the Institutional Review Board, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, and the Clinical Investigation Committee, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA.

Study design

This 14-week strictly controlled diet study took place at the General Clinical

Discussion

The aim of the present study was to examine the accuracy of the YPAS for older adults using the intake-balance method as a derived measure of the EEPA. Our data suggest that the YPAS reasonably predicts the EEPA in older groups of people, with the caution that it might overpredict EEPA of older women. Other studies that examined the accuracy of the YPAS used different methods and validity criteria such as body composition, VO2 max, or activity estimates from accelerometers or diaries. Some

Conclusions

The YPAS is used to estimate energy expenditure from physical activity in older adults and can be easily administered in a clinical or a wellness setting. Due to the wide variability, caution should be used if it is the only method used to estimate EEPA. The survey may be useful in assessing physical activity expenditure in groups of older individuals.

L. J. Kruskall is an assistant professor of nutrition, Department of Nutrition Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

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  • Cited by (24)

    • Correlation between the Yale Physical Activity Survey (YPAS) and a submaximal performance-based test: A study in a population of elderly Spanish women

      2012, Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics
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      Although the authors did not go into their causes in depth since this was not the objective of the research, their results, alongside with ours, confirm the validity and utility of the Spanish version of YPAS and serve to respond to some of the methodological needs that exist in this kind of studies. On the one hand, it has been pointed out the lack of validity of the maximal exercise testing to be chosen as a criterion measure for validation of PA surveys in the elderly, mainly because it does not have any relation with low-intensity or recreational activities (Kruskall et al., 2004). In this respect and according to our findings, it seems that using submaximal exercise testing, such as 6MWT, may be useful for this purpose.

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      The study was approved by the ethics committee at the Poznań University of Medical Sciences, and all participants gave their informed consent. The energy expenditure due to physical activity (EEPA) was estimated from the Yale physical activity questionnaire for older adults (DiPietro et al., 1993; Nadel et al., 1997), a tool with moderate to good reliability (De Abajo et al., 2001; Schuler et al., 2001; Pennathur et al., 2004) that is a valid tool to estimate EEPA for groups of older individuals (Young et al., 2001; Kruskall et al., 2004). The EEPA was calculated as follows: the time spent on each indicated activity was multiplied by an intensity code and summed over all activities.

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    L. J. Kruskall is an assistant professor of nutrition, Department of Nutrition Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

    W. W. Campbell is an associate professor of foods and nutrition, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.

    W. J. Evans is director, Nutrition, Exercise, and Metabolism Laboratory, Donald W. Reynolds Center on Aging, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock.

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