Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior among Young Adolescents in 68 LMICs, and Their Relationships with National Economic Development

Chuanwei Ma, Yuanyuan Zhang, Min Zhao, Pascal Bovet and Bo Xi
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Chuanwei Ma: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
Yuanyuan Zhang: Women’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310006, China
Min Zhao: Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
Pascal Bovet: Center for Primary Care and Public Health (Unisanté), University of Lausanne, 1010 Lausanne, Switzerland
Bo Xi: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 21, 1-18

Abstract: It is unclear whether physical activity and sedentary behavior are associated with economic development in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We aimed to assess the association between these two behaviors and country economic development among young adolescents in LMICs. Data came from the Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) conducted between 2009 and 2016 in 68 LMICs. A total of 180,298 adolescents aged 12–15 years were included; 15.3% of young adolescents achieved the recommended level for sufficient physical activity (≥60 min/day of physical activity of any kind per week according to WHO) and 64.6% achieved a low sedentary behavior (≤2 h of sitting activities/day according to some guidelines, not accounting for sitting time at school or for doing homework). However, only 9.1% of young adolescents met the recommended levels of both behaviors. Comparing the lowest to the highest quintiles of a country’s purchasing power parity per capita (PPP), mean values of both physical activity (boys: 2.55 to 2.96 days/week; girls: 2.10 to 2.31 days/week) and sedentary behavior(boys: 1.86 to 3.13 h/day; girls: 1.83 to 3.53 h/day) increased. The prevalence of having both recommended behaviors decreased among boys (12.0% to 10.0%) and girls (9.6% to 4.9%) ( p < 0.001). Although there might be an ecological fallacy, the findings emphasize the need for interventions to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior among children and young adolescents.

Keywords: physical activity; sedentary behaviors; adolescents; low- and middle-income countries; purchasing power parity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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