Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the sedentary behaviour questionnaire among Arabic speaking healthy adults

Subjective evaluation of sedentary behaviour using questionnaires can be used to measure sedentary time. The Sedentary Behaviour Questionnaire (SBQ) is a valid and reliable way to measure sedentary time. Our objectives were to: 1) linguistically and culturally adapt the SBQ to the Arabic-speaking populations; and 2) assess its psychometric properties. The SBQ translation and cross-cultural adaptation were performed according to published guidelines. The psychometric properties of the translated version were investigated in a sample of ambulatory healthy adults from the general population in Jordan. The Arabic version of the SBQ was produced (SBQ-Ar) with good face and content validity. In terms of convergent validity, significant Spearman’s correlations were found between weekdays total sedentary hours and item 26 of the Arabic version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-Ar) (rho = 0.26; p < 0.001); and between weekends total sedentary hours and IPAQ-Ar’s item 27 (rho = 0.38, p < 0.01). Regarding discriminant validity, there were no significant differences in total sedentary hours/week with respect to body mass index and physical activity. There was a significant negative correlation between participants’ age and total sedentary hours/week (rho = −0.23, p < 0.01). Regarding reliability, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for weekdays, weekends, and all days were as follows: ICC(2,1) (95% CI) = 0.83 (0.65–0.91); 0.86 (0.74–0.92); and 0.85 (0.70–0.92) respectively. For internal consistency, Cronbach’s alpha for weekdays and weekend items were 0.41 and 0.42, respectively. This study translated and culturally adapted the SBQ into Arabic, but the resulting questionnaire demonstrated inadequate internal consistency, requiring further research.