The majority of U adults were not p...

The majority of U adults were not physically active upon a regular basis in 2000 or 2001 according to a report published through the Centers for Disease direction and Prevention (CDC). "Prevalence of Physical Activity, Including Lifestyle Activities Among Adults--United States, 2000-2001" is available online at http://wwwcdc gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5232a2.htm.

Guidelines for physical activity to increase cardiorespiratory fitness in adults have been expanded to include health-related lifestyle activities, in addition to leisure-time physical activity (primarily vigorous-intensity exercise or sports-related activities).

According to the report, equal with a more complete measure of physical activity than used previously, the majority of U adults do not engage in physical activities consistent with the recommendation of a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity in succession most days of the week. In 2000 a total of 262 percent of adults engaged in activities consistent with the physical activity recommendations, compared with 454 percent in 2001 Physical inactivity was similar in 2000 (274 percent) and in 2001 (26 percent)

The CDC notes that, because of changes to the 2001 examine the difference in the proportion of adults who engaged in activities consistent with physical activity recommendations in 2000 and 2001 might not bring reproach an actual increase in physical activity. The percentage of adults who obtained the approveed level of physical activity, as indicated according to responses to the 2001 questions, increased for several reasons.

First, the recently made known 2001 lifestyle activity questions screened more activity domains (e.g., household, transportation, and leisure-time); the 2000 questions veiled only the leisure-time domain. other the 2001 lifestyle activity questions attempted to profile the activities in a usual week rather than reporting the top brace activities during the preceding month; therefore, les visit often activities that might not have been mentioned in the 2000 question format could be included in the 2001 overall activity profile. Finally, in 2001 respondent were asked specifically to recall moderate- and vigorous-intensity activities separately, thereby increasing the potential to recall les intense lifestyle activities.

COPYRIGHT 2004 American Academy of Family Physicians

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