At A Glance
IPAQ Scoring Protocol

Please review the document “Guidelines for the data processing and analysis of the "International Physical Activity Questionnaire”, available in a pdf-file below, for more detailed description of IPAQ analysis and recommendations for data cleaning and processing.

The scoring protocol is slightly revised in Nov 2005 and is now a combined protocol for both the long and the short form of the IPAQ instrument

Categorical Score-
three levels of physical activity are proposed

1. Low (category 1)
This is the lowest level of physical activity. Those individuals who not meet criteria for categories 2 or 3 ar considered inactive.

2.  Moderate (category 2)
Any one of the following 3 criteria
• 3 or more days of vigorous activity of at least 20 minutes per day OR
• 5 or more days of moderate-intensity activity or walking of at least 30 minutes
per day OR
• 5 or more days of any combination of walking, moderate-intensity or vigorous
intensity activities achieving a minimum of at least 600 MET-min/week.

3.  High (category 3)
Any one of the following 2 criteria
• Vigorous-intensity activity on at least 3 days and accumulating at least 1500 MET-minutes/
week OR
• 7 or more days of any combination of walking, moderate-intensity or vigorous
intensity activities achieving a minimum of at least 3000 MET-minutes/week

Continuous Score
I suggested to be expressed as MET-min per week: MET level x minutes of activity x events per week.

Please find the exact figures of a MET value for each domain and intensity at the pdf-file below.