Prevalence and correlates of insufficient physical activity in school adolescents in Peru

Abstract

OBJECTIVETo assess the prevalence and correlates of insufficient physical activity in adolescents in Peru.METHODSWe used a self-administered questionnaire developed from Global school-based Student Health Survey to collect information from secondary school students in North Lima and Callao in 2015. We carried out Poisson regression with robust variance using generalized linear models to estimate the crude and adjusted prevalence ratios (APR) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) of insufficient physical activity for its correlates.RESULTSWe have found that 78% of the adolescents did not meet the global recommendation of the World Health Organization on physical activity in the last week before the survey. Female respondents (APR = 1.13, 95%CI 1.04–1.21), respondents who perceived themselves as overweight (APR = 1.10, 95%CI 1.03–1.18), and respondents who consumed insufficient vegetables and fruits [no vegetables (APR = 1.30, 95%CI 1.06–1.59), no fruits (APR = 1.15, 95%CI 1.00–1.31) as compared to those who consumed ≥ 2 servings every day in the last seven days] were more likely to report insufficient physical activity. Adolescents who worked after school (APR = 0.92, 95%CI 0.84–0.99), had physical education classes five times per week (APR = 0.94, 95%CI 0.88–0.99), and had parental supervision (APR = 0.92, 95%CI 0.87–0.98) were less likely to report insufficient physical activity.CONCLUSIONSSex, work after school, perceived body weight, physical education class, parental support, and healthy dietary behaviors were associated with insufficient physical activity. Attempts to improve physical activity should look for ways to enhance leisure-time physical activity, parental support, physical education classes, healthy dietary behaviors, and normal body weight maintenance in adolescents with integrated efforts from the family and school.

Are senior high school students in Ghana meeting WHO’s recommended level of physical activity? Evidence from the 2012 Global School-based Student Health Survey Data

“…Physical activity was the main outcome of interest. As evidenced in several previous studies [2,10,11,15,17,22,28,31], physical activity was measured with a single self-reported question. The question was: "During the past 7 days, on how many days were you physically active for a total of at least 60 minutes per day?"…”

“…The options provided ranged from zero to seven days. Based on the WHO [3] recommendation that there should be at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day for five days or more and drawing from previous studies [2,10,11,15,17,22,23,28,31], the SHS students were grouped into two. Thus, those who met the recommendation for engaging in 5 days or more physical activity in the last week preceding the survey were categorised as "sufficiently physically active" while those who did not meet this standard were grouped as "physically inactive".…”

“…Activities involving body movement triggered by skeletal muscles are collectively referred to as physical activity. These activities (for instance, travelling) usually involve energy expenditure [1,2]. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that children and adolescents should have not less than 60 min of daily physical activity of moderate-to-vigorous intensity or as being active for not less than 60 min on 5 days per week [3].The WHO additionally notes that physical activity, when done regularly by adolescents, comes with health benefits (such as, cardiovascular and metabolic health), while physical inactivity may result in ill health [3].…”

“…This has led to an upsurge of research on the subject, with the focus on factors associated with physical activity among adolescents and students [11,12], motives for physical activity among adolescents [1,13,14], as well as frequency of adolescents' involvement in physical activity [2,15,16]. Additionally, factors influencing physical activity have been documented by some previous studies [2,17,18].…”

“…A review of the literature suggests that previous studies on physical activity focused largely on Europe [14,19,20], and American countries such as Brazil [11,16,17], United States of America [9], and Peru [2], with few studies in Africa. Generally, in the context of Africa, Nigeria [12] and South Africa [21] have been the focus of the few previous studies of this kind.…”