How Active And Sedentary Is The Chilean Population?

Purpose: Most of the evidence in physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) has been obtained from developed countries; however in order to promote and improve global and local interventions, evidence from developing countries is needed. The purpose of this study was to describe the PA levels and SB in the Chilean population.

Methods: In 2009, a National Health Survey (ENS2010) was conducted in Chile in a randomized and representative sample of each of the 13 regions (urban and rural). Participants were visited twice for collection of demographic data and laboratory tests. The Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ) was used to measure PA and SB. In addition, a randomized subsample wore an ActiGraph GT3X (AG) for at least 7 days.

Results: A total of 5196 adults (40.0% male; age= 47.9(SD 18.0); BMI= 28.1 kg•m2 (SD 5.4)) completed the ENS-2010. Overall, GPAQ showed that 33.9%, 19.1% and 47.0% had low, moderate and high PA levels, respectively. Accumulated PA totalled 68% while working, 25% during transportation, and 7% in leisure activities. Only 15% reported leisure PA and 92.7% do not perform 30 or more minutes of PA at least 3 times per week. Based on AG data (N=207; 44% male; age=45.1 (SD 14.8); BMI= 27.4 kg•m2 (SD 4.8)), the mean times spent in sedentary, light, moderate, and vigorous activities were 553 (SD=171), 317 (SD=98), 35 (SD=26) and 5 (SD=8) min•d-1, respectively. When moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) was calculated for ≥10-min bouts, 5.8% met the PA guidelines (MVPA>150 min•wk-1); in contrast, when each minute of MVPA was included, 71.0% met the PA guidelines.

Conclusions: Despite more than half of the Chilean population having achieved moderate to high levels of PA as measured with self-report, a large proportion do not practice any PA during leisure time and a large part of the time spent in PA during a week is attributable to work. Like citizens of developed countries, Chileans spend, overall, 60% of their daily time in SB, and accumulate MVPA mostly in bouts of short duration.