Seminar Series: Dr. Richard Larouche

Improving the global surveillance of physical activity: the Global Adolescent and Child Physical Activity Questionnaire (GAC-PAQ) project

Richard Larouche

Associate Professor of Public Health
University of Lethbridge
Lethbridge, AB

Adjunct Professor
Physical Activity, sports and Health Sciences
Universidad Pablo de Olavide
Seville, Spain

Affiliate Investigator
Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute
Ottawa, ON

Short Biography:
Richard is an Associate Professor of Public Health and the founder and director of the Physical Activity, Transport & Health (PATH) research group. He is currently the Principal Investigator of a 16-country study funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research that aims to develop a new global app-based questionnaire to assess physical activity among children and adolescents. His research interests include active transportation, physical activity, outdoor play, independent mobility, the environment and climate change. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and is the editor of the book Children’s Active Transportation, published by Elsevier in 2018. He is also a co-founder and board member of Outdoor Play Canada.

Abstract:
The majority of children and adolescents globally do not meet the World Health Organization’s physical activity (PA) guidelines. Insufficient PA is associated with many negative outcomes such as poorer mental health, lower academic achievement, obesity, and the development of cardiovascular disease risk factors. Global comparisons of PA indicators could inform the development of PA interventions. However, they are currently limited by the use of inconsistent methods, questionnaires with insufficient validation in low- and middle-income countries, and the underrepresentation of children and participants from rural areas. The Global Adolescent and Child Physical Activity Questionnaire (GAC-PAQ) was developed to address these limitations. It underwent content validation studies with 62 experts in PA surveillance and 250 child-parent dyads from 15 countries. An application (app) was developed to administer the questionnaire to streamline data collection procedures while including audio narration and country-specific images and examples to facilitate completion of the questionnaire. The test-retest reliability and concurrent validity of the app-based questionnaire against ActiGraph accelerometers are now being assessed in 16 low-, middle-, and high-income countries representing all continents. In all participating countries, we are recruiting a sample of 500 8- to 17-year-olds stratified by sex and urbanicity. This will generate a unique international dataset that will facilitate global comparison of self-reported and device-measured PA indicators while enabling investigation of the structural determinants of PA.

Key words:
Public health, Physical activity, Global health, Epidemiology, Health promotion, Active transportation

Learn more about Dr. Larouche:
Website

Date: Friday, October 17
Time: 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Location: PHFM 1150 (Western Centre for Public Health and Family Medicine) or Zoom (request link by email    epibio@uwo.ca)