Initial Assessment of a Brief Health, Fitness, and Spirituality Survey for Epidemiological Research: A Pilot Study

BACKGROUND: Not many population-based health studies include items to assess both fitness and spirituality concepts. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine initial data of a brief health, fitness, and spirituality survey for epidemiological research. METHODS: This first phase pilot study used data from N = 56 adults 18+ years of age via electronic questionnaire. Measures of general health, fitness, physical activity (PA), body mass index (BMI), religiosity, and happiness were assessed. Reliability analyses were employed for PA, religiosity, and happiness scales. Validity coefficients were computed to evaluate convergence between scale scores and related measures. Finally, difference in health was examined between different levels of fitness to evaluate known groups discrimination. RESULTS: Respondents were middle-aged (Mean = 50.5 yr, SD = 14.3), majority white (69.5%, SD = 6.2), with relatively low BMI (Mean = 25.3, SD = 5.3). All three scales showed internal consistency reliability of α = 0.93, α = 0.89, and KR-20 = 0.56 for religiosity, happiness, and PA, respectively. Furthermore, scores converged (ps < 0.05) between fitness and PA (r = 0.43), health (r = 0.66), BMI (r = -0.28), and happiness (r = 0.25). Finally, health scores were significantly greater for high fitness versus low fitness in both male (p < 0.001) and female (p = 0.015) populations. CONCLUSION: Results from this study indicate that a brief health, fitness, and spirituality survey can reliably measure its intended traits. A single-item of self-assessed fitness in particular has promise for large scale epidemiological research.