Abstract

BackgroundAdolescent physical activity (PA) levels track into adulthood. However it is not known if type of PA participated in during adolescence is associated with PA levels later in life. We aimed to identify natural groupings of types of PA and to assess whether number of years participating in these different groupings during adolescence is related to PA level in early adulthood.Methods673 adolescents in Montreal, Canada, age 12–13 years at baseline (54 % female), reported participation in 29 physical activities every 3 months over 5 years (1999–2005). They also reported their PA level at age 24 years (2011–12). PA groupings among the 29 physical activities were identified using factor analysis. The association between number of years participating in each grouping during adolescence and PA level at age 24 was estimated using linear regression within a general estimating equation framework.ResultsThree PA groupings were identified: “sports”, “fitness and dance”, and “running”. There was a positive linear relationship between number of years participating in sports and running in adolescence and PA level at age 24 years (β (95 % confidence interval) = 0.09 (0.04-0.15); 0.08 (0.01-0.15), respectively). There was no relationship between fitness and dance in adolescence and PA level at age 24.ConclusionsThe association between PA participation in adolescence and PA levels in young adulthood may be specific to certain PA types and to consistency of participation during adolescence. Results suggest that efforts to establish the habit of participation in sports and running in adolescence may promote higher PA levels in adulthood.

Highlights

  • Adolescent physical activity (PA) levels track into adulthood

  • No meaningful differences in sex, parental education, age or median PA level at cycle 22 were observed between participants retained and those excluded from the analyses

  • Our findings suggest that sport participation must be sustained for at least four years during high school in order to translate into higher adult PA levels

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Summary

Introduction

Adolescent physical activity (PA) levels track into adulthood. it is not known if type of PA participated in during adolescence is associated with PA levels later in life. Another study found weak but significant positive associations between number of school sports, organised sports teams, and number of physical education classes in adolescence and total amount of discretionary PA in adulthood [16]. These studies are limited by a single assessment of PA type in youth that is measured over relatively brief [16] or unspecified [13,14,15] time periods

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