Physical Activity Patterns of the Spanish Population Are Mostly Determined by Sex and Age: Findings in the ANIBES Study

According to several international and national organizations, to promote and maintain health all adults over 18 years of age should perform moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity for a minimum of 150 minutes, or vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity for a minimum of 75 minutes, every week of the year. Along the same lines, children and Young people aged 5-17 years should accumulate at least 60 minutes of moderate- and vigorousintensity physical activity daily throughout the year.

Within this context, the main objective of the study ‘Physical Activity Patterns of the Spanish Population Are Mostly Determined by Sex and Age: Findings in the ANIBES Study’ , was to describe the physical activity behavior by means of an established standardized instrument for the assessments of self-reported physical activity behavior (IPAQ), and the distribution by sex, age group, geographical distribution, and locality size, in a national representative sample of the Spanish population aged between 9 and 75, with four subsamples (9-12 years-old, 13-17 years-old, 18-64 years-old and 65-75 years-old), two of them plus booster to comply with the statistical power.

The main findings of this study indicate that although the means of vigorous and/or moderate physical activity were higher than international recommendations, a large percentage of participants did not meet these recommendations.

Factors such as geographical distribution, locality size or the educational level are involved in the physical activity levels, but sex and age are the main influencing factors on physical activity in the Spanish population. Males engage in more vigorous and light physical activity overall, whereas females perform more moderate physical activity.

Physical activity behavior differs between age groups and no clear lineal increase or decrease with age could be observed. Subjects who do not perform any daily vigorous physical activity increase with increasing age in both sexes. Regarding moderate physical activity, in the total sample, seniors (over 65 years of age) had a higher percentage of inactive participants, followed by adolescents and young adults.

Learn all the data of the study ''Physical Activity Patterns of the Spanish Population Are Mostly Determined by Sex and Age: Findings in the ANIBES Study" by cohort and by sex.

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