Adolescent and Young Adult Recreational, Occupational, and Transportation Activity: Activity Recommendation and Weight Status Relationships

Purpose: Physical activity can occur in many settings, or domains, including recreation, occupation, and transportation. We described patterns of adolescent and young adult (YA) activity in each domain, and the extent that accounting for different domains impacts activity recommendation adherence. We also examined activity domain associations with weight status.

Methods: We examined physical activity among 11,157 adolescents and YAs in recreational, occupational, and transportation domains in the 2007-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We calculated proportions meeting weekly activity recommendations (adolescents: 420 minutes; YAs: 150 minutes) by domain. We compared adjusted odds of performing any activity in each domain by weight status. All estimates are weighted and stratified by age (adolescents: 12-19 years; YAs: 20-29 years) and sex.

Results: Most adolescents (90.9%) and YAs (86.7%) reported activity in at least one domain. Recreational activity accounted for an average of 60.2% (adolescents) and 42.5% (YAs) of an individual's total activity. Approximately half of YAs (50.2%) reported any occupational activity, which accounted for 44.6% (males) and 37.4% (females) of total activity minutes. Transportation accounted for 18.1% (adolescents) and 16.2% (YAs) of total activity. Activity recommendation adherence estimates increased when adding domains: recreation alone (34.9% adolescents, 45.6% YAs); recreation and occupation (47.2% adolescents, 68.7% YAs); and recreation, occupation, and transportation (53.5% adolescents, 74.7% YAs). Weight status was generally not associated with activity domains.

Conclusions: Adolescents and YAs accumulate substantial occupational and some transportation-related physical activity, resulting in more youth meeting activity recommendations when accounting for these activity domains than recreation alone.