Validity and precision of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire for climacteric women using computational intelligence techniques.

This study aimed to evaluate the validity and precision of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) for climacteric women using computational intelligence techniques. The instrument was applied to 873 women aged between 40 and 65 years. Considering the proposal to regroup the set of data related to the level of physical activity of climacteric women using the IPAQ, we used 2 algorithms: Kohonen and k-means, and, to evaluate the validity of these clusters, 3 indexes were used: Silhouette, PBM and Dunn. The questionnaire was tested for validity (factor analysis) and precision (Cronbach's alpha). The Random Forests technique was used to assess the importance of the variables that make up the IPAQ. To classify these variables, we used 3 algorithms: Suport Vector Machine, Artificial Neural Network and Decision Tree. The results of the tests to evaluate the clusters suggested that what is recommended for IPAQ, when applied to climacteric women, is to categorize the results into two groups. The factor analysis resulted in three factors, with factor 1 being composed of variables 3 to 6; factor 2 for variables 7 and 8; and factor 3 for variables 1 and 2. Regarding the reliability estimate, the results of the standardized Cronbach's alpha test showed values between 0.63 to 0.85, being considered acceptable for the construction of the construct. In the test of importance of the variables that make up the instrument, the results showed that variables 1 and 8 presented a lesser degree of importance and by the analysis of Accuracy, Recall, Precision and area under the ROC curve, there was no variation when the results were analyzed with all IPAQ variables but variables 1 and 8. Through this analysis, we concluded that the IPAQ, short version, has adequate measurement properties for the investigated population.

Correction: Health conditions associated with overweight in climacteric women.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218497.].

Health conditions associated with overweight in climacteric women.

This study aims to investigate the association between health conditions and overweight in climacteric women assisted by primary care professionals. It is a cross-sectional study conducted with 874 women from 40 to 65 years of age, selected by probabilistic sampling between August 2014 and August 2015. In addition to the outcome variable, overweight and obesity, other variables such as sociodemographic, reproductive, clinical, eating and behavioural factors were evaluated. Descriptive analyses of the variables investigated were performed to determine their frequency distributions. Then, bivariate analyses were performed through Poisson regression. For the multivariate analyses, hierarchical Poisson regression was used to identify factors associated with overweight and obesity in the climacteric period. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 74%. Attending public school (PR: 1.30-95% CI 1.14-1.50), less schooling (PR: 1.11-95% CI 1.01-1.23), gout (PR: 1.18-95% CI 1.16-1.44), kidney disease (PR: 1.18-95% CI 1.05-1.32), metabolic syndrome (MS) (PR: 1.19-95% CI 1.05-1.34) and fat intake (PR: 1.12-95% CI 1.02-1.23) were considered risk factors for overweight. Having the first birth after 18 years of age (PR: 0.89-95% CI 0.82 to 0.97) was shown to be a protective factor for overweight and obesity. The presence of overweight and obesity is associated with sociodemographic, reproductive, clinical and eating habits.