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

Author

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  • Chuanwei Ma

    (Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
    The two authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Yuanyuan Zhang

    (Women’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310006, China
    The two authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • 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)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Chuanwei Ma & Yuanyuan Zhang & Min Zhao & Pascal Bovet & Bo Xi, 2020. "Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior among Young Adolescents in 68 LMICs, and Their Relationships with National Economic Development," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-18, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:21:p:7752-:d:433616
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Davy Vancampfort & Tine Van Damme & Joseph Firth & Mats Hallgren & Lee Smith & Brendon Stubbs & Simon Rosenbaum & Ai Koyanagi, 2019. "Correlates of leisure-time sedentary behavior among 181,793 adolescents aged 12-15 years from 66 low- and middle-income countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(11), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Majid Ezzati & Jonathan Pearson-Stuttard & James E. Bennett & Colin D. Mathers, 2018. "Acting on non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income tropical countries," Nature, Nature, vol. 559(7715), pages 507-516, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. João Martins & Adilson Marques & Élvio Rúbio Gouveia & Francisco Carvalho & Hugo Sarmento & Miguel González Valeiro, 2022. "Participation in Physical Education Classes and Health-Related Behaviours among Adolescents from 67 Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-16, January.

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