Validity and reliability of the Chinese version of the Barriers to Physical Activity during Pregnancy Scale (BPAPS) in pregnant women

Despite regular physical activity (PA) is beneficial to maternal health and her fetus, engagement in PA among pregnant women is inactive. It is essential to assess barriers to PA in this population to increase pregnant women’s PA level. However, there is a lack of reliable and valid tools to evaluate barriers to PA during pregnancy in China. Therefore, the study aimed to translate and validate the Barriers to Physical Activity during Pregnancy Scale (BPAPS) in Chinese pregnant women. A study of 448 pregnant women was conducted in China from November to December 2023. After obtaining the author’s permission, the translation of the BPAPS was carried out with a standardized procedure. The validity of the BPAPS was measured by the content validity, construct validity, and criterion validity in this study. The reliability of the BPAPS was evaluated using internal consistency and test-retest. The final Chinese version of the BPAPS had four domains with 28 items. The content validity index of all items ranged from 0.875 to 1.000. Exploratory factor analysis extracted four factors, explaining 62.332% of the total variance. The four-factor model was confirmed. The initial model did not fit well. After modification, the final model had a reasonable fit to the data: the chi-square to degrees of freedom ratio was 2.439, the root mean-square-error of approximation was 0.068, the comparative fit index was 0.913, the incremental fit index was 0.913, and the tusker-lewis index was 0.903. This scale also had good criterion validity ( r = 0.605, P <0.001). The Cronbach’s alpha and intraclass correlation coefficient of the total scale were 0.942 and 0.860, indicating good reliability. The Chinese version of the BPAPS has good reliability and validity. It can be used as an effective tool to assess barriers to PA in Chinese pregnant women.