Socioeconomic and Demographic Differences in Physical Activity Level in Adults from Metropolitan Cities

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: the 40 million inhabitants of the state of São Paulo have access since 1996 to a multilevel program (AGITA SÃO PAULO) that promotes health benefits of PA and evaluate the impact of its actions measuring the PA level of the population. PURPOSE: to evaluate differences in physical activity (PA) level according to socioeconomic and demographic characteristics in adults from cities of São Paulo Metropolitan Region with a PA intervention program. METHODS: a household survey was conducted in 2005 to measure the PA level in three industrialized cities (pop.=1,48 millions) of São Paulo Metropolitan Region. A sample of 646 persons over 18 years old was obtained. Using IPAQ (last week, short form) subjects were classified in Insufficiently Active (IA) (sedentary or irregularly active) and Active (active and very active). A socioeconomic indicator (SEI) was created based on the number of goods that that families owns. Prevalence was calculated with confidence intervals of 95% (CI95%). A stratified analysis was also conducted to evaluate the presence confounding and interaction. RESULTS: the prevalence of IA in the population over 18 years was of 45.2% (CI95%:41.3–49.1%). There was no difference by sex and IA's prevalence was higher among the older ones (p=0,008). There was also a trend of higher prevalence of IA and lower socioeconomic strata (SES) (p=0.045). The scholarship was associated with the level of physical activity (p=0.020), but there was no trend. The interactions tested revealed that lower scholarship and unemployment were associated with higher prevalence of IA and that those associations were more important in the lowest SES. There were no differences in PA level between men and women. Near 50% of the adult population of this region is still insufficiently active. CONCLUSION: the data show the importance and the complexity of the socio-economic differences in physical activity, highlighting the association with unemployment, a major problem in developing countries. This seems to be a real challenge for a universal program like AGITA specifically, and for the Brazilian National Health System.