Adult physical activity behavior: a trend analysis.

One of the health objectives for the nation is to have 60% of adults 18-64 years regularly active in vigorous physical activity by 1990. In this paper an effort is made to determine whether American society is making satisfactory progress toward this goal. Two independent databases are analyzed: time diaries collected from a national sample of American adults in 1981; and the Simmons Market Research Bureau, Inc., survey undertaken in 1984. Participation of adults 25-64 in moderate to vigorous activities that included racquet sports, swimming, hiking, bicycling, skiing, jogging, outdoor gardening, skating, etc. is compared between the two time periods. After adjusting for social desirability bias the results indicated there were a similar number of non-participants of the activities analyzed in 1981 and 1984. There was, however, an increase in the number of adults participating occasionally in vigorous activity, although, there did not appear to be any increase in the number who were regularly active, i.e. at least 3 days/week. Thus, while there are indications that adults 25-64 years are adopting more vigorous activity, less than 20% were regular enough in 1984 for improvements in cardiovascular functioning to occur. Unless there were dramatic increases in the activity status of adults 18-24 years of age which was not assessed in this study, the 1990 goal is unlikely to be met.