Awareness and Knowledge of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd Edition.

Abstract

Assessing awareness and knowledge of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition (Guidelines), released in 2018, is important for monitoring factors that contribute to increasing physical activity. We estimated prevalence of awareness and knowledge of the adult aerobic guideline (≥150min/wk of moderate-intensity equivalent aerobic physical activity preferably spread out over a week) among adults (n = 3471) and of the youth aerobic guideline (≥60min/d of mostly moderate- to vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity) among a subset of parents (n = 744) from a nationwide sample of US adults in the 2019 FallStyles survey. We estimated odds ratios using logistic regression, adjusting for demographic and other characteristics. Approximately 1 in 10 US adults and parents reported being aware of the Guidelines. Only 3% of adults knew the correct adult aerobic guideline. The most common responses were "don't know/not sure" (44%) and "30minutes a day, 5 or more days a week" (28%). Among parents, 15% knew the youth aerobic guideline. Awareness and knowledge tended to be lower with lower education and income. Limited awareness and knowledge of the Guidelines suggest communication about the Guidelines could be strengthened, especially among adults with low income or education.