Abstract
ObjectivesWe used linked existing data from the 2006–2008 American Time Use Survey (ATUS), the Current Population Survey (CPS, a federal survey that provides on-going U.S. vital statistics, including employment rates) and self-reported body mass index (BMI) to answer: How does BMI vary across full time occupations dichotomized as sedentary/non-sedentary, accounting for time spent in sleep, other sedentary behaviors, and light, moderate, and vigorous intensity activities?MethodsWe classified time spent engaged at a primary job (sedentary or non-sedentary), sleep, and other non-work, non-sleep intensity-defined behaviors, specifically, sedentary behavior, light, moderate, and vigorous intensity activities. Age groups were defined by 20–29, 30–39, 40–49, and 50–64 years. BMI groups were defined by 18.5–24.9, 25.0–27.4, 27.5–29.9, 30.0–34.9, and ≥35.0 kg/m2. Logistic and linear regression were used to examine the association between BMI and employment in a sedentary occupation, considering time spent in sleep, other non-work time spent in sedentary behaviors, and light, moderate, and vigorous intensity activities, sex, age race/ethnicity, and household income.ResultsThe analysis data set comprised 4,092 non-pregnant, non-underweight individuals 20–64 years of age who also reported working more than 7 hours at their primary jobs on their designated time use reporting day. Logistic and linear regression analyses failed to reveal any associations between BMI and the sedentary/non-sedentary occupation dichotomy considering time spent in sleep, other non-work time spent in sedentary behaviors, and light, moderate, and vigorous intensity activities, sex, age, race/ethnicity, and household income.ConclusionsWe found no evidence of a relationship between self-reported full time sedentary occupation classification and BMI after accounting for sex, age, race/ethnicity, and household income and 24-hours of time use including non-work related physical activity and sedentary behaviors. The various sources of error associated with self-report methods and assignment of generalized activity and occupational intensity categories could compound to obscure any real relationships.
Highlights
Questionnaires typically capture domain-specific activity which presumes that these are the only activities worth tracking
Health’’ (EH) module which included a query of self-reported height and weight, necessary for computing body mass index (BMI). This analysis combined the 2006–2008 American Time Use Survey (ATUS) with corresponding occupational codes from the Current Population Survey (CPS, a federal survey that provides on-going U.S vital statistics, including employment rates) and self-reported BMI from the Eating and Health (EH) module to answer the following question: How does BMI vary across full time occupations dichotomized as sedentary/non-sedentary, with and without accounting for time spent in sleep, other sedentary behaviors, and light, moderate, and vigorous intensity activities?
We employed logistic and linear regression to examine the association between BMI and employment in a sedentary occupation, accounting for time spent in sleep, other non-work time spent in sedentary behaviors, and light, moderate, and vigorous intensity activities, sex, age, race/ethnicity and household income
Summary
Questionnaires typically capture domain-specific activity (e.g., leisure time physical activity, occupational activity) which presumes that these are the only activities worth tracking. We have produced a crosswalk to assign metabolic equivalent (MET; 1 MET is the metabolic cost of quietly resting or >3.5 mL of oxygen uptake per kg body weight per minute) values to these categorized behaviors [3], identifying each ATUS primary activity as a sedentary behavior, or a light, moderate, or vigorous intensity activity. This process included linking summary MET values to generalized occupational categories in an attempt to better characterize the intensity of time originally captured simplistically as ‘‘at work’’ in the ATUS. Since the prevalence of sedentary occupations (and associated weight gain) has increased in recent decades [6], there is a growing interest in examining the impact of sedentary occupations on body habitus, taking into account behaviors enacted outside of working hours, especially for full time workers with limited personal time [7,8,9]
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