Physical activity habits of adults in east central Indiana related to their demographic characteristics

In 1993, it was estimated that poor diet and physical inactivity lead to 300,000 deaths a year in the United States (52). In 1996, the first report on Physical Activity and Health by the Surgeon General was published (80). The major recommendation revealed by the Surgeon General Report was that every U.S. adult should accumulate a moderate amount of physical activity on most, preferably all, days of the week. Strong efforts to communicate the importance of physical activity to the United States population have been somewhat successful. However, trends still fall far short from the goal set forth by Healthy People 2010. Nearly 1 in 4 adults reported no leisure-time physical activity in 2004 (45). The goal is for 20% of the U.S. population to report no leisure-time physical inactivity by the year 2010 (79).It is evident that a large amount of physical activity data and statistics exist. However, physical activity has been traditionally assessed using self-report methods (67). In 1999, the Cooper Institute hosted a conference titled Measurement of Physical Activity. This conference brought leaders in physical activity assessment together with measurement specialists to discuss issues and future direction in physical activity assessment. It was a consensus among researchers that assessing physical activity is a challenging task confounded by various purposes for assessment, populations, and assessment methods. In addition, they found a strong need for the development of assessment devices with sound psychometric properties (89). Self-report instruments have been identified to have numerous reliability and validity limitations.The purpose of this study was to objectively measure the physical activity (pedometer counted steps per day) of adults in East Central Indiana and to assess how these results relate to demographic characteristics and general health indices. Pedometer-measured physical activity (steps) was recorded over a 7 day period and was compared to physical activity data from the IPAQ and to national data obtained via surveys. All subjects also completed a demographic survey.The percentage of subjects who were sedentary was 14.0% which is less than national data demonstrates. Mean steps/day were significantly associated with age, certain income levels, and marital status. An increase in age resulted in a decrease in the mean steps/day. Mean steps/day were also significantly less in the $25,000-$39,999 income level than the >$80,000 group. Those who were either single, divorced, or widowed completed significantly more steps/day than married subjects. Males participated in significantly more vigorous MET•min/week than females. Age was significantly negatively correlated with vigorous MET•min/week, and walking MET•min/week. BMI and income level were negatively correlated with walking MET•min/week. Non-married subjects participated in significantly more vigorous MET•min/week than non-married subjects. The IPAQ classifications were found to agree with the physical activity data from the pedometer measured data. However the relationship (Spearman correlation = 0.325) was relatively weak.School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise ScienceThesis (M.S.