A useful tool for analysing the effects of bone-specific physical activity

Abstract

The Bone-specific Physical Activity Questionnaire (BPAQ) was designed to expressly capture historical osteogenic physical activity. Algorithms were developed to score questionnaire responses to account for specific physical activity parameters known to enhance bone adaptation. Those scores were weighted according to the age and duration of participation to recognise age-specific differences in skeletal responsiveness to mechanical loading. A free web-based calculator was developed to simplify data processing and generate past, current and total BPAQ scores. We have previously shown that scores from the BPAQ are capable of predicting variance in bone mass measures for healthy young adults, where other common measures of physical activity do not. Recently our group has determined mean BPAQ scores of men and women across the lifespan and examined BPAQ measurement reliability. In the current paper, we report those developments. Specifically, we present inter- and intra-tester reliability data and mean BPAQ values for men and women in 10-year age brackets from 5-83 years of age.