Reliability and Validity of the Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire Health Contribution Score in its Use with Adults with ADHD

Abstract

As Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may have an unknown influence on the self-reports of physical activity of adults with ADHD and there is a need for high quality self-report assessments of this kind, we examined the test-retest reliability and construct validity of the Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire–Health Contributions Score (GLTEQ–HCS) in its use with 35 adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (26 females, 9 males; Mage = 28.7, SD = 6.3 years). Participants completed the GLTEQ twice and wore an ActiGraph GT9X–accelerometer for seven-days. An intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) determined test-retest reliability, and we determined construct validity based on correlations between the GLTEQ–HCS and minutes/day of sedentary behavior (SB), light physical activity (LPA), and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), as well as differences in SB, LPA, and MVPA among the three GLTEQ–HCS subgroups. The GLTEQ-HCS had excellent test-retest reliability [ICC = 0.98, 0.95 to 0.99], and it was positively correlated with MVPA ( r = 0.47, p = .006; r s = 0.52, p = .002). There was a significant and large difference in minutes/day of device-measured MVPA between the three GLTEQ–HCS groups [ F (2,32) = 7.30, p = .003, η 2 = 0.33]. These results provide psychometric support for using the GLTEQ-HCS with adults who have been diagnosed with ADHD.