A description of the volume and intensity of sporadic physical activity among adults.

Jordan Robson,Ian Janssen

doi:10.1186/2052-1847-7-2

Abstract

BackgroundEmerging evidence indicates that accumulating physical activity in periods of less than 10 minutes, termed sporadic physical activity (SPA), has similar effects on health as a similar volume of bouted physical activity (BPA). The purpose of this study was to describe the volume and intensity of SPA in adults.MethodsParticipants consisted of a representative sample of 6040 adults aged 20 years and older from the 2003–2006 U.S. National Health and Examination Nutrition Survey. Physical activity was measured over 7 days using Actigraph AM-7164 accelerometers. Each minute of accelerometer data was initially categorized by intensity (sedentary, light, moderate-to-vigorous), and then non-sedentary time was categorized as following a BPA or SPA pattern (≥ or < 10 consecutive minutes).ResultsAmerican adults accumulated 103 minutes/day of SPA of an intensity, which represented 27% of their total (BPA + SPA) daily physical activity. Only 3 minutes/day of the SPA was of a moderate-to-vigorous intensity; however, participants accumulated 16 minutes/day of moderate-to-vigorous activity embedded within light intensity BPA. This embedded moderate-to-vigorous activity represented 85% of total daily moderate-to-vigorous activity.ConclusionsSPA accounted for about a quarter of total daily physical activity. While the amount of moderate-to-vigorous SPA was minimal, a significant amount of moderate-to-vigorous activity was accumulated within bouts of primarily light intensity activity.

Highlights

Emerging evidence indicates that accumulating physical activity in periods of less than 10 minutes, termed sporadic physical activity (SPA), has similar effects on health as a similar volume of bouted physical activity (BPA)
Public health guidelines for physical activity are that adults accumulate at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) in bouts of 10 minutes or more [3,4,5]
The vast majority of SPA was of a light intensity (i.e., 100 of 103 minutes) and 91% of participants accumulated no vigorous intensity SPA

Summary

Introduction

Emerging evidence indicates that accumulating physical activity in periods of less than 10 minutes, termed sporadic physical activity (SPA), has similar effects on health as a similar volume of bouted physical activity (BPA). Public health guidelines for physical activity are that adults accumulate at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) in bouts of 10 minutes or more [3,4,5]. While sporadic physical activity (SPA), or physical activity occurring in periods of less than 10 consecutive minutes, is not recognized as providing health benefits within the current physical activity guidelines, a growing body of evidence suggests otherwise. MVPA [8,9,10], and the associations between SPA and cardiometabolic risk factors are as strong as they are for bouted physical activity (BPA) [10]. Notable barriers to physical activity participation, including a lack of time and self-efficacy [11,12,13], may be less relevant for SPA than BPA

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