Large-scale physical activity data reveal worldwide activity inequality

Abstract

Understanding the basic principles that govern physical activity is needed to curb the global pandemic of physical inactivity1–7 and the 5.3 million deaths per year associated with in-activity2. Our knowledge, however, remains limited owing to the lack of large-scale measurements of physical activity patterns across free-living populations worldwide1, 6. Here, we leverage the wide usage of smartphones with built-in accelerometry to measure physical activity at planetary scale. We study a dataset consisting of 68 million days of physical activity for 717,527 people, giving us a window into activity in 111 countries across the globe. We find inequality in how activity is distributed within countries and that this inequality is a better predictor of obesity prevalence in the population than average activity volume. Reduced activity in females contributes to a large portion of the observed activity inequality. Aspects of the built environment, such as the walkability of a city, were associated with less gender gap in activity and activity inequality. In more walkable cities, activity is greater throughout the day and throughout the week, across age, gender, and body mass index (BMI) groups, with the greatest increases in activity for females. Our findings have implications for global public health policy and urban planning and highlight the role of activity inequality and the built environment for improving physical activity and health.

Physical Activity and Health-Related Quality of Life Among Low-Income Adults in Metropolitan Kuala Lumpur

“…Although we suspect the data has serious bias, Physical Activity and Health-Related Quality of Life such as smartphone carrying time (depending on the types of clothing differed by country), the objective PA data give important insights into the understanding of physical inactivity prevalence. 35 Generally, there is a clear worldwide variation in physical inactivity prevalence, where physical inactivity is more common in countries of high income than in those of low income. However, globally and regardless of income level of a country, the low-income people had more physical inactivity than those with high income.…”

“…6 These changes have led to rapid urbanization and poorer lifestyle choices, such as unhealthy dietary habits and inadequate PA. 7 Nationwide surveys have highlighted an increasing trend of disease burden and prevalence among the Malaysian population. 8 The Fourth National Health and Morbidity Survey of Malaysia reported that the prevalence of non-communicable disease (NCD) risk factors of obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertension were 27.2%, 35.1%, and 32.7%, respectively, in Malaysia. 9 The respondents from the urban areas reported higher prevalence of chronic illness compared to those from rural areas.…”

Programa Academias da Saúde e a promoção da atividade física na cidade: a experiência de Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil

“…Health promotion plays the role of transmuting the fragmentation of care spaces and claiming the social functions of the city, strengthening the logic of universality and integrality 4 . Among the global fronts of health promotion, physical activity is a priority theme 5,6 considering the epidemiological importance and the social gradients of this behavior in the population 7,8 . Increasing access to public areas for physical activities or sports has been an urban policy to encourage such practice 2 .…”

Evaluating the Carrot Rewards app, a population-level incentive-based intervention promoting step counts across two Canadian provinces: a quasi-experimental study (Preprint)

“…4 or less) during the baseline period, a generic 5,000 daily step goal was provided. Five thousand daily steps is approximately the number of steps taken by the average Canadian adult as measured by a popular smartphone-based activity tracking app [38].…”