Levels of Physical Activity in Lithuanian Adolescents

• Main Authors: Guillermo Felipe López-Sánchez, Arūnas Emeljanovas, Brigita Miežienė, Arturo Díaz-Suárez, Sheila Sánchez-Castillo, Lin Yang, Justin Roberts, Lee Smith
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-11-01
• Series: Medicina
• Subjects: physical activity; health; schoolchildren
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1010-660X/54/5/84

<em>Background and objective</em>: Population levels of physical activity are an international concern. The purpose of the present study was to describe and analyse physical activity levels in Lithuanian adolescents. <em>Materials and methods</em>: With this aim in mind, the Physician-based Assessment and Counselling for Exercise (PACE) questionnaire was administered to 5141 adolescents residing in Lithuania, 2502 boys (48.7%) and 2639 girls (51.3%), aged between 11 and 19 years. <em>Results</em>: It was found that adolescents studied met the physical activity guideline, of 60 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity a day, on average 3.6 days/week (SD = 2.1). A total of 3426 adolescents (66.6%) were inactive as classified by the PACE questionnaire (at least 1 h of physical activity/day &lt; 5 days/week). In the present sample there were more active (at least 1 h of physical activity/day ≥ 5 days/week) boys (n = 994, 39.7%) than girls (n = 721, 27.3%) (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.001; OR 1.75, 95% CI 1.56 to 1.97), and, on average, boys were more likely to meet daily recommendations of physical activity than girls, 0.7 days more a week (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.001; IRRs 1.21, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.25). According to age, younger adolescents (11–12 years) were significantly more active than older adolescents (13–19 years) and a curvilinear relationship between age and physical activity was observed with significant linear (unstandardized beta (B) = −0.807; standardized beta (β) = −0.796; <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001) and quadratic terms (unstandardized beta (B) = 0.024; standardized beta (β) = 0.704; <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001). <em>Conclusions</em>: It is necessary to increase the level of physical activity in Lithuanian adolescents and intervention programs should be carried out considering these results.