Development of Modified Japanese Versions of Questionnaires to Assess Physical and Cognitively Stimulating Activities.

Introduction: Lifestyle factors such as physical and cognitively stimulating activities may protect against various diseases. However, only a few simple and validated questionnaires assess the lifestyle factors in Japan. Thus, we aimed to create Japanese versions of such questionnaires for assessing physical and cognitively stimulating activities. This study examined their inter-rater reliability and test-retest reproducibility.

Methods: We developed a Japanese version of questionnaires by translating the English questionnaire that assesses the frequency of several physical and cognitively stimulating activities. Additionally, the Japanese version assesses the duration of engagement in physical activities, and we have added mental activities such as meditation and Zen practice. The inter-rater reliability and test-retest reproducibility of evaluating the frequency, duration, frequency × duration of each physical activity, and frequency of each cognitively stimulating activity were tested in healthy volunteers.

Results: The study included 48 participants aged 25-67 years. We observed good inter-rater reliability and test-retest reproducibility for the physical and cognitively stimulating activity questionnaires. As a pilot approach, we calculated the Total Physical Activity Score (metabolic equivalents·min/week) with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) (2,1) of 0.818 (95% confidence interval, 0.698-0.894), indicating good test-retest reproducibility.

Conclusions: The Japanese versions of questionnaires used to assess the frequency and duration of physical and cognitively stimulating activities generally have good inter-rater reliability and test-retest reproducibility. While introducing the duration of engagement might enable the estimation of the Total Physical Activity Score, further validation using objective measures of activities and other self-reported physical activity questionnaires is necessary, which is a limitation of this study.