Associations Between Trajectories of Leisure-Time Physical Activity and Television Viewing Time Across Adulthood: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine trajectories of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and televisionviewing (TV) time and their associations in adults over 10 years. Methods: The sample comprised 2934 participants (men, 46.0%) aged 24-39 years in 2001 and they were followed up for 10 years. LTPA and TV time were assessed using self-report questionnaires in 2001, 2007, and 2011. Longitudinal LTPA and TV-time trajectories and their interactions were analyzed with mixture modeling. Results: Three LTPA (persistently highly active, 15.8%; persistently moderately active, 60.8%; and persistently low active, 23.5%) and 4 TV time (consistently low, 38.6%; consistently moderate, 48.2%; consistently high, 11.7%; and consistently very high, 1.5%) trajectory classes were identified. Persistently highly active women had a lower probability of consistently high TV time than persistently low-active women (P = .02), whereas men who were persistently highly active had a higher probability of consistently moderate TV time and a lower probability of consistently low TV time than their persistently low-active counterparts (P = .03 and P = .01, respectively). Conclusions: Maintaining high LTPA levels were accompanied by less TV over time in women, but not in men. The associations were partially explained by education, body mass index, and smoking.

Life-course leisure-time physical activity trajectories in relation to health-related behaviors in adulthood: the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study

“…Additionally, physical inactivity in adolescence predicted smoking [19] and weekly alcohol intoxication in young adulthood, especially in women [20]. Our previous longitudinal studies showed that persistently physically active adult women watched television less than low-active women [21], leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) evolved in tandem with fruit and vegetable consumption from childhood to adulthood [22], persistent inactivity was associated with smoking [23,24] whereas, in contrast, persistent higher LTPA was associated with regular alcohol drinking [23].…”

Contemporaneous trajectories of physical activity and screen time in adolescents

“…who reported 3 stable trajectories (da Silva etal. 2017), and Yang et al who reported 4 stable trajectories (Yang et al 2019). However, other studies have also identified stable high, moderate, and low screen time trajectories, as well as increasing and decreasing patterns (da Silva et al 2017;Krist et al 2020;Kwon etal.…”

“…Physical activity in trajectory investigations is measured using highly variable methods (i.e., objective (Farooq et al 2018;Kwon et al 2015a) or subjective (Findlay et al 2009(Findlay et al , 2010Howie et al 2016;Kwon et al 2015aKwon et al , 2015b; parent-and/or child-reported (Findlay et al 2009(Findlay et al , 2010; as organized physical activity (Findlay et al 2009), unorganized physical activity (Findlay et al 2010), or team participation (Kwon et al 2015a); sex-specific (Farooq et al 2018;Findlay et al 2009Findlay et al , 2010 or whole-sample (Audrain-McGovern et al 2012;Parker et al 2019a)), and this methodological variety hinders consistent conclusions about physical activity development during adolescence. In regard to sedentary or screen time (i.e., a subset of total sedentary time), most studies examine screen time trajectories measured in hours daily orweekly, and report stable high, moderate orlow,as well as increasing or decreasing trajectories (da Silva et al 2017;Krist et al 2020;Kwon et al 2015aKwon et al , 2015bMcVeigh et al 2016;Yang et al 2019). Differing results across studies create ambiguity inthe literature and raise questions about the extent to which lack of consistency in methodology underpins the differing results.…”