Reliability and validity of Healthy Fitness Measurement Scale (V1.0) for evaluating healthy fitness of college students in Guangzhou

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the reliability and validity of Healthy Fitness Measurement Scale V1.0 (HFMS V1.0) for assessing healthy fitness status of college students in Guangzhou. METHODS A total of 584 college students were evaluated with HFMS V1.0. The reliability and validity of HFMS V1.0 scale were assessed for its discrimination degree, Cronbach α coefficient, split-half reliability, test-retest reliability, content validity, structural validity, calibration validity and responsiveness. RESULTS The Cronbach α of HFMS V1.0 scale was 0.893, the split-half coefficient was 0.909, and the test-retest coefficient was 0.923. The correlation coefficients of each dimension with its subscales ranged from 0.687 to 0.931. The correlation coefficient between each item and its dimension ranged from 0.558 to 0.863(P < 0.05). Exploratory factor analysis showed that the variance interpretation of 8 factors was 55.105%, and the factor structure was basically identical with the theoretical concept of the scale. Confirmatory factor analysis showed excellent goodness-of-fit indices of the model (χ2/DF= 1.952; RMSEA=0.400; GFI=0.906; TLI=0.905; IFI=0.914; and CFI=0.913; P < 0.05). The correlation coefficients between the 4 general items and their corresponding scales ranged from 0.585 to 0.670. The proportions of the highest and lowest scores of the scale were very low, suggesting a high responsiveness of the scale. CONCLUSIONS HFMS V1.0 has high reliability and validity for evaluating healthy fitness status of college students.