Prevalence of regular physical activity among adults--United States, 2001 and 2005

Abstract

Regular physical activity is associated with decreased risk for obesity, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, certain cancers, and premature mortality. CDC and the American College of Sports Medicine recommend that adults engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most days and preferably on all days. Healthy People 2010 objectives include increasing the proportion of adults who engage regularly in moderate or vigorous activity to at least 50% (objective 22-2). In addition, reducing racial and ethnic health disparities, including disparities in physical activity, is an overarching national goal. To examine changes in the prevalence of regular, leisure-time, physical activity from 2001 to 2005, CDC analyzed data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). This report summarizes the results of that analysis, which indicated that, from 2001 to 2005, the prevalence of regular physical activity increased 8.6% among women overall (from 43.0% to 46.7%) and 3.5% among men (from 48.0% to 49.7%). In addition, the prevalence of regular physical activity increased 15.0% (from 31.4% to 36.1%) among non-Hispanic black women and 12.4% (from 40.3% to 45.3%) among non-Hispanic black men, slightly narrowing previous racial disparities when compared with increases of 7.8% (from 46.0% to 49.6%) for white women and 3.4% (from 50.6% to 52.3%) for white men, respectively. CDC, state and local public health agencies, and other public health partners should continue to implement evidence-based, culturally appropriate initiatives to further increase physical-activity levels among all adults, with special focus on eliminating racial/ethnic disparities.