Correlates of Meeting Physical Activity Recommendations with Walking among Japanese Adults

Abstract

The present study investigated the relative contributions of psychological, social, and environmental factors to meeting physical activity recommendation by walking among Japanese adults. Self-reported measures of total weekly physical activity, vigorous and moderately intense activity, walking, self-efficacy, pros, cons, social support, health-professional advice, home exercise equipment, access to facilities, neighbourhood safety, enjoyable scenery, frequently observing others exercising, and residential area were obtained from 1932 Japanese male and female adults using an Internet-based cross-sectional survey on February, 2008. Based on the recommendation criteria of the Exercise and Physical Activity Reference for Health Promotion 2006 (EPAR2006), respondents were divided into 3 groups: recommended, insufficient, and inactive. A force entry multivariate logistic regression model was utilized. Overall, 69.0% of responders walked in daily life, for transportation or for exercise. However, only 12.1% walked according to the recommended criterion of the EPAR2006. When adjusting for all other variables, there was no association between psychological, social, and environmental factors and recommended group in males. However, self-efficacy, pros, enjoyable scenery were positively whereas social support and living in both suburban and rural areas were negatively associated with only insufficient group in males. For females, selfefficacy, home exercise equipment, and enjoyable scenery were positively associated, whereas living in rural area was negatively associated with both recommended and sufficient groups. Living in suburban area was negatively associated with only insufficient group. Different psychological, social, and environmental correlates were found in walking behaviours with the recommended and insufficient level as well as for males and females. This suggests that a design of intervention that accounts for the specific correlates with each walking activity level and gender found in the current study may more effectively promote walking due to well-matching the needs and characteristics of the target population among Japanese adults.