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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Audie A. Atienza, PhD¹, Amy L. Yaroch, PhD¹, Richard Moser, PhD², Uriyoán Colón Ramos, MPA³, Louise Mâsse, PhD⁴, and Gary Bennett, PhD⁵. (1) Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, Health Promotion Research Branch, National Cancer Institute, 6130 Executive Blvd., Room 4074/MSC 7335, Bethesda, MD 20892, 301-451-9530, yarocha@mail.nih.gov, (2) Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, Behavioral Research Program, 6130 Executive Blvd., Bethesda, MD 20892, (3) School of Public Health, Harvard University, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, (4) Centre for Community Child Health Research, University of British Columbia, 4480 Oak Street, room L409, Vancouver, BC V5H 3V4, Canada, (5) Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave, 7th Floor, Boston, MA 02115

Over a decade ago, CDC/ACSM and NIH recommended that all individuals should engage in a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate intensity or greater physical activity for 5 or more days/week for health. This recommendation was echoed by the U.S. Surgeon General in 1996 and by the IOM in 2005. Yet, approximately 25% of U.S. adults are currently inactive and 40% insufficiently active. Whether U.S. adults are knowledgeable of these recommendations remains unclear. We use the 2005 NCI HINTS (N = 5,586) to examine knowledge of these recommendations in a nationally representative sample, and explored associated factors.

Results indicated that 46% underestimate the recommended number of days of physical activity to “stay healthy”, and only 36% correctly answered the number of recommended minutes. Taken together, only 17% correctly identified both the recommended number of days and minutes of physical activity. Factors correlated with higher knowledge rates of physical activity recommendation include higher SES (income, education, home ownership; p<.001), being White (p<.001), gender (women > men; p<.001), having health insurance (p<.01), better general health (p<.01), internet access (p<.001), and watching less television (p<.001).

Findings suggest that most U.S. adults do not know national physical activity recommendations for health. Increasing national physical activity rates may require creative public health interventions and campaigns first focused on increasing awareness and knowledge of physical activity recommendations, particularly among low SES groups, ethnic minorities, and men.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to

• Identify national physical activity recommendations and describe trends in national physical activity behavior patterns.
• Identify the proportion adults in the United States who are knowledgeable of national physical activity recommendations.
• Identify factors that distinguish between those who know vs. don’t know the physical activity recommendations.

Keywords: Physical Activity, Communication

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No