Physical activity and sedentary behaviors among adolescents in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Tóm tắt
Background: Obesity/overweight has becoming an emerged epidemic, in which the youth is getting familiar with the western and passive life. This paper’s aim is to describe physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviours of adolescents in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).
Methods: This is a secondary data analysis of a cross-sectional study conducted on 1358 junior high school students in 2019. Multistage cluster sampling was applied and participants were interviewed by questionnaires. Time spent in moderate to vigorous PA, transportation as well as screen time were calculated for each student. Multiple logistic regression was used to examine associations between levels of time spent for sedentary, PA, transportation and socio-demographic factors.
Results: Boys spent more PA time (40.2 to 48.2 mins/day) than girls (29.4 to 31.6 mins/day). Time spent studying after class was on average 135 minutes/day. Multiple logistic regression showed that the odds of active transportation in boys and girls were increased as the age increased and the highest was found in the oldest age group (ORmale = 2.89, 95% CI: 1.41, 5.95; ORfemale = 3.24, 95% CI: 1.33, 4.11, respectively). In contrast to age, the odds of active transportation in boys and girls were decreased as the wealth index increased.
Conclusions: There is a clear gender difference in PA and sedentary behaviors in HCMC adolescents. PA was negatively associated with household economic status. Efforts to reduce overweight/obese adolescents should focus on increasing activity levels of adolescents, especially females, older students and those from richer families or parents with higher education.
