Individual, Household, and Neighborhood Predictors of Daily Physical Activity among American Indian and Alaskan Native Children and Adolescents

Background: Regular physical activity (PA) is recommended for optimal health among all children and adolescents. Sport participation, parental support for PA, and factors related to the social and physical environments are associated with increased PA among white youth. However, few population-based studies describe PA and related behaviors among American Indian and Alaskan Native (AI/AN) youth. Methods: We analyzed data from the 2007 National Study of Children's Health, a population-based, cross-sectional telephone survey. Analyses were limited to 10-17 year-olds AI/AN youth residing in 7 states that reported AI/AN race: Alaska, Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota (unweighted n= 386). Multivariate logistic regression was conducted to describe associations between at least 20 minutes of PA per day (daily PA) and the child's behaviors and household and neighborhood environments, while adjusting for child's age and sex and household income. Results: The prevalence of daily PA was 33.6% (95% Confidence Interval [CI]=23.4-43.7). Neighborhood environment, e.g., perceived safety and access to parks, were not associated with daily PA. Parental daily PA (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]=7.4 95% CI=1.7-33.4), parental rules regarding television programming the child is allowed to watch (aOR=3.8 95% CI=1.0-13.7), child's sports team participation (aOR=3.7 95% CI=1.3-10.7), and child's viewing of 2 or fewer hours of television daily (aOR=12.6 95% CI=1.0-78.1) were positively associated with daily PA. Conclusions: Providing opportunities for sports participation, parental modeling of PA, and parental rule-setting with regard to television viewing may increase physical activity among AIAN youth. Culturally appropriate models for addressing these factors are needed.