GP-PAQ Calculator

Overview

The GP-PAQ calculator is used to assess the physical activity levels of adults seen in Primary Care. It provides a simple, 4 level physical activity index. Practitioners can use this index to help them decide when to offer interventions to increase physical activity.

Usage

The calculator is used in Health Checks and may be accessed from the action menu outside of Health Checks.

Technical Specification

The GP-PAQ calculator is only valid for patients aged 16-74 years inclusive.

The calculator asks a series of questions to determine a patient’s activity level.

Results

Patients will fall into one of the following 4 categories:

• Inactive: Sedentary job and no physical exercise or cycling

• Moderately inactive: Sedentary job and some but < 1 hour physical exercise and/or cycling per week OR Standing job and no physical exercise or cycling

• Moderately active: Sedentary job and 1-2.9 hours physical exercise and/or cycling per week OR Standing job and some but < 1 hour physical exercise and/or cycling per week OR Physical job and no physical exercise or cycling

• Active: Sedentary job and ≥ 3 hours physical exercise and/or cycling per week OR Standing job and 1-2.9 hours physical exercise and/or cycling per week OR Physical job and some but < 1 hour physical exercise and/or cycling per week OR Heavy manual job

Note: Questions concerning Walking, Housework/Childcare and Gardening/DIY have been included to allow patients to record their physical activity in these categories, however these questions have not been shown to yield data of a sufficient reliability to contribute to an understanding of overall physical activity levels. As noted above further questioning is required.