Health behaviors of adults: United States, 2008-2010

Abstract

Objective-This report presents selected prevalence estimates for key health behaviors-alcohol use, cigarette smoking, leisure-time physical activity, body mass index, and sleep-among U.S. adults, using data from the 2008-2010 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). NHIS is a continuous survey conducted annually by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. Estimates are shown for several sociodemographic subgroups for both sexes combined and for men and women separately. Methods-Data representing the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population were collected using computer-assisted personal interviews. NHIS is a general purpose in-person household survey, collecting basic health, health care utilization, and demographic information on all household members with the Family questionnaire. Health behavior questions are asked in the Sample Adult survey component. This report is based on a total of 76,669 completed interviews with sample adults aged 18 and over. Statistics shown in this report were age adjusted to the projected 2000 U.S. population. Results-About 6 in 10 (64.9%) U.S. adults were current drinkers in 2008-2010; about 1 in 5 adults (20.9%) were lifetime abstainers. About one in five adults (20.2%) were current smokers and over one-half of adults (58.6%) had never smoked cigarettes. Less than one-half of current smokers (45.8%) attempted to quit smoking in the past year. Nearly one-half (46.1%) of adults met the federal guidelines for aerobic physical activity, about one-quarter (23.0%) of adults met the federal guidelines for muscle-strengthening physical activity, and about one in five adults (19.4%) met both guidelines. About 6 in 10 adults (62.1%) were overweight or obese (BMI ≥ 25), with about 4 in 10 (36.1%) adults being of healthy weight (18.5 ≤ BMI less than 25). About 7 in 10 adults (69.7%) met the Healthy People 2020 objective for sufficient sleep.