- The Leisure Time Physical Activity Questionnaire for People with Spinal Cord Injury (LTPAQ-SCI) is an SCI-specific, self-report assessment of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) that measures the number of minutes of mild, moderate, and heavy intensity LTPA that a person performed over the previous 7 days.
- A revised version has been developed recently for people with disabilities (LTPAQ-D). It similarly measures the number of days and minutes spent on mild-, moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic LTPA, but introduces one additional item to track the number of days and minutes dedicated to moderate to vigorous strength-training over the preceding seven days.
Clinical Considerations
The LTPAQ-SCI uses the same PA Intensity Classification System as the PARA-SCI, but in contrast to the PARA-SCI, it exclusively measures the duration of LTPA in minutes.
ICF Domain
Participation
Administration
- It can be self- or interviewer-administered.
- Individuals receive a standardized definition of LTPA and a validated, SCI-specific definition of mild-intensity LTPA. Then, they are asked to recall (a) the number of days, over the past 7 days, that they did mild-intensity LTPA and (b) on those days, how many minutes they spent doing mild-intensity LTPA. These steps are repeated for moderate-intensity and heavy-intensity LTPA.
Length
Less than five minutes.
Items
Six items/questions.
Equipment
N/A
Scoring
- Total aerobic LTPA is calculated by summing the weekly mild, moderate, and vigorous intensity aerobic LTPA.
- Total strengthening LTPA equals the product of the days per week of strength training activities and the minutes per day of strength training activities minus the total time spent resting per week.
*Detailed instructions are available in the worksheet.
Languages
English and Canadian-French.
Training Required
None.
Availability
- LTPAQ-SCI: Can be found in the appendix of the following article: https://www.archives-pmr.org/article/S0003-9993(11)00957-9/fulltext
- LTPAQ-D and LTPAQ-SCI(R): Can be found here and in SCI Action Canada Lab.
Measurement Property Summary
# of studies reporting psychometric properties: 4
Interpretability
MCID: not established in SCI
SEM: not established in SCI
MDC: not established in SCI
Typical Values
Mean Scores (min/week):
| Mild | Moderate | Heavy | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 205.68 (325.33) | 115.35 (242.94) | 54.97 (161.34) | 376.00 (602.10) |
(Martin Ginis et al. 2012; n=103; 73% males; incomplete and complete injuries; paraplegia and tetraplegia; mean (SD) time since injury: 17.9 (12.7) years; LTPAQ-SCI version)
Reliability – Moderate to High
- Test-retest reliability for the LTPAQ-SCI is High (ICC = 0.83).
(Martin Ginis et al. 2012; n=35; 77% males, tetraplegia and paraplegia, 25% complete, 75% incomplete; general community: mean (SD) time since injury: 14.2 (12.4) years)
- Test-retest reliability for the LTPAQ-D is Moderate (ICC = 0.751).
(Gee et al. 2024; n=27 who identified as having a physical and/or sensory disability; 14 males, 13 females; chronic disability; LTPAQ-D version)
- Test-retest reliability for the LTPAQ-SCI(R) is High (ICC = 0.85 to 1.00).
(Gee et al. 2025; n=23; 18 males, 5 females; tetraplegia and paraplegia; ASIA A-D; mean time since injury 17 years; LTPAQ-SCI(R) version)
Validity – Moderate to High
- Moderate correlation between LTPAQ-SCI Total and PARA-SCI LTPA subscale:
r = 0.46
(Martin Ginis et al. 2012; n=103; 75% males, tetraplegia and paraplegia, 40% complete, 60% incomplete; general community: mean (SD) time since injury: 17.9 (11.9) years)
- Moderate to High correlation between min/week of moderate intensity LTPA, heavy intensity LTPA, and total LTPA and VO2peak:
r = 0.276 to 0.443, p < 0.05. - Moderate correlation between heavy-intensity LTPA and POpeak:
r = 0.294, p = 0.035
(Martin Ginis et al. 2021; n=39, 29 males, 10 females; 8 tetraplegia AIS A, 7 tetraplegia AIS B, and 24 paraplegia AIS A; mean time since injury: 13 years)
- All LTPA (LTPAQ-D) for combined aerobic and strength training has high correlations with:
- PASIPD (MET h/day): r = 0.613 (p < 0.001)
- IPAQ-SF LTPA (min/week): r = 0.657 (p < 0.001)
- IPAQ-SF MVPA (min/week): r = 0.656 (p < 0.001)
- PADS Exercise + LTPA (min/week): r = 0.718 (p < 0.001)
(Gee et al. 2024; n=27 who identified as having a physical and/or sensory disability; 14 males, 13 females; chronic disability; LTPAQ-D version)
- All LTPA (LTPAQ-SCI(R)) for combined aerobic and strength training has high correlations with:
- PASIPD (MET h/day): r = 0.687 (p < 0.001)
- PARA-SCI LTPA (min/day): r = 0.664 (p < 0.001)
- PARA-SCI MVPA (min/day): r = 0.657 (p < 0.001)
(Gee et al. 2025; n=23; 18 males, 5 females; tetraplegia and paraplegia; ASIA A-D; mean time since injury 17 years; LTPAQ-SCI(R) version)
Responsiveness
No values were reported for the responsiveness of the LTPAQ-SCI / LTPAQ-D for the SCI population.
Floor/Ceiling Effect
No values were reported for the presence of floor/ceiling effects in the LTPAQ-SCI /LTPAQ-D for the SCI population.
Reviewers
Dr. Janice Eng, Dr. Carlos L. Cano-Herrera, Matthew Querée
Date Last Updated
31 December 2024
Gee CM, Neely A, Jevdjevic A, Olsen K, Martin Ginis KA. The Leisure Time Physical Activity Questionnaire for People with Disabilities: Validity and Reliability. Disabilities. 2024; 4: 321-331. https://doi.org/10.3390/disabilities4020021
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7272/4/2/21
Gee CM, Neely A, Jevdjevic A, Olsen K, Martin Ginis KA. Development, Construct Validity, and Reliability Testing of a Revised Version of the Leisure Time Physical Activity Questionnaire for People With Spinal Cord Injury. Top Spinal Cord Inj Rehabil. 2025; doi: https://doi.org/10.46292/sci24-00031
https://meridian.allenpress.com/tscir/article-abstract/doi/10.46292/sci24-00031/505445/Development-Construct-Validity-and-Reliability?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Cummings I, Lamontagne ME, Sweet SN, Spivock M, Batcho CS. Canadian-French adaptation and test-retest reliability of the leisure time physical activity questionnaire for people with disabilities. Ann Phys Rehabil Med. 2019; 62: 161-167. doi: 10.1016/j.rehab.2018.12.002.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30639580/
Martin Ginis KA, Phang SH, Latimer AE, Arbour-Nicitopoulos KP. Reliability and validity tests of the leisure time physical activity questionnaire for people with spinal cord injury. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2012; 93: 677-82. doi: 10.1016/j.apmr.2011.11.005.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22336103/
Martin Ginis KA, Úbeda-Colomer J, Alrashidi AA, Nightingale TE, Au JS, Currie KD, Hubli M, Krassioukov A. Construct validation of the leisure time physical activity questionnaire for people with SCI (LTPAQ-SCI). Spinal Cord. 2021; 59: 311-318. doi: 10.1038/s41393-020-00562-9.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33040086/
