Prevalence and demographic correlates of meeting the recommendation among China’s Adult Physical Activity Guidelines

Abstract

Recently, the China Adult Physical Activity Guideline (CAPAG) have been published. However, it is unclear to know the prevalence of people meeting the CAPAG, and who meet. Therefore, we conducted this study to investigate the prevalence and demographic characteristics of people achieving the recommended CAPAG. Cross-sectional data in the present study was analyzed for 1,655 Chinese urban adults. The Chinese version of International Physical Activity Questionnaire was used to examine CAPAG level of adults. According to CAPAG, Chinese adults are recommend to meet ≥6000 Step/day. Demographic data, including age, marital status, educational level, income level, body mass index and self-rated health were obtained with the questionnaire. To examine the association of demographic and health status with PA level, a multivariate logistic regression analysis was utilized. Overall, 61.1% of respondents met the PA recommendation. Unmarried and healthy (self-rated health) were significantly associated with meeting the physical activity recommendation. Women aged 30 to 39 years were less likely to achieve the recommendation. Women with incomes of 1,000 Yuan or less were more likely to meet the recommendation than those with incomes of 4,000 Yuan or more. Adults with normal weight were more likely to those with underweight. Differences in associations of demographic correlates with the PA recommendation were observed between men and women, which suggest that gender-specific strategies might be more effective in promoting PA among Chinese urban adults.