Adherence to physical activity recommendations across age categories: Findings from the 2009-2010 Chilean National Health Survey

Abstract

Although physical activity (PA) is a protective factor against non-communicable diseases, there is an important proportion of the population who do not meet PA guidelines. Our aim was to investigate how adherence to PA guidelines varies across different age groups in the Chilean population. 5,133 participants from the 2009-2010 Chilean Health Survey were included in this study. PA was measured using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ). Physical inactivity was defined as <600 MET/min/week of moderate to vigorous intensity PA. Logistic regression was used to investigate the association of PA with age. The main finding of this shows that women were more likely to be inactive than men (p<0.0001). Physical inactivity prevalence varied >80 years, respectively. These findings confirm the necessity of promoting PA across the lifespan, but more importantly, these results suggest that more promotion and opportunities for engaging in PA should be created especially for older adults, who are more likely to be physically inactive.