Prevalence of physical exercise and sedentary behavior in adults in Anhui,2013

Objective To understand the prevalence of leisure-time physical excise and sedentary behavior in adults in Anhui. Methods A face-to-face questionnaire survey was conducted among local adults selected through multi-stage stratified random sampling to collect the information about chronic noncommunicable disease related risk factors and the prevalence of leisure-time physical excise and sedentary behavior. The related index were estimated after complex sampling design weight and post stratification adjustment. Results The percentage of local residents who never took excise, took regular excise and took insufficient excise was 88.69%(95%CI:85.83%-91.55%), 8.03%(95%CI:5.32%-10.74%), and 18.04% (95%CI:11.40%-24.68%), respectively. People with higher education level showed lower never excise rate, and higher regular excise and insufficient excise rates compared with those with lower education level (P0.05). The insufficient excise rate was higher in those in urban area, with higher education level and being engaged in mental work than those in rural area, with low education level and being engaged in manual labor (P0.05). The local adults spent 4.33 hours per day on sedentary behavior (95%CI:4.19-4.47), including 105.30 minutes for watching TV (95%CI:97.03-113.58), 30.85 minutes for using computer (95%CI:23.64-38.07), and 22.01 minutes for using mobile phone (95%CI:15.82-28.20). The sedentary behavior time increased with age and decreased with education level, the time spent on watching screen was similar (P0.01). Conclusion The physical activity level was low and lack of physical exercise was common in adults in Anhui. Close attention should be paid to those with young age, living in urban area and with higher education level because they spent much time on watching screen.