‘GAC-PAQ activities’ with Development and Validation of a Global Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents – A Multi-country Research Project

Global Adolescent and Child Physical Activity Questionnaire (GAC-PAQ)

Project Introduction

Physical activity (PA) is crucial for healthy child development, yet around 80% of young people do not meet recommended activity levels, and data on younger children remain limited. Existing PA questionnaires, largely developed in high-income countries, may not adequately capture the contexts of low-income countries or important activities such as active play. Developing more context-appropriate measurement tools would improve cross-country comparisons and help identify effective strategies to promote physical activity among children.

Global Adolescent and Child Physical Activity Questionnaire (GAC-PAQ) is a multi-country collaborative research project that aims to develop and validate app-based physical questionnaires for adolescents and children aged 8-17 years, including 14 countries (low-, middle- and high-income) from six habitable continents.

The countries include Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Sweden, Spain, Malawi, Nigeria, Nepal, India, China, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and New Zealand.

Project Objective

• To develop an app-based physical activity questionnaire and determine its accuracy in measuring PA among children and adolescents (8-17 years old) in 14 countries, including Nepal, from 6 continents.

Project Area (Nepal)

• Dolakha, Syangja, Rupandehi and Bardiya

Project Activities

• Development and validation of an app-based Global Adolescent and Child Physical Activity Questionnaire
• Data collection
  • subjective (app-based questionnaires)
  • objective (accelerometers)

Project Status

• Content validation of questionnaire – completed
• Pilot Study – completed
• Main Study – ongoing (midway)

Collaborators

• Canadian Institute for Health Research (CFIR)
• University of Lethbridge

Principal Investigator-Nepal: Dr Narayan Subedi, PhD, CRFC, MPH

email: n.subedi@nedsnepal.org.np

Publications

1. Development and validation of the Global Adolescent and Child Physical Activity Questionnaire (GAC-PAQ) in 14 countries: study protocol. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-082275
2. Content validation of the Global Adolescent and Child Physical Activity Questionnaire (GAC-PAQ) in low-, middle-, and high-income countries across 6 continents. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2025.101074