Vigorous Physical Activity Among High School Students --
United States, 1990
Vigorous physical activity can improve the health of both
adults and children. Among adults, regular physical activity can
reduce risk for chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease,
hypertension, noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, colon cancer,
and depression, as well as lower all-cause death rates (1,2). Among
children, regular physical activity can reduce chronic disease risk
factors such as obesity, elevated cholesterol, and hypertension
(3). Physical activity patterns established during childhood may
extend into adulthood (4). This report examines the prevalence of
vigorous physical activity among U.S. students in grades 9-12.
The national school-based Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is
a component of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, which
periodically measures the prevalence of priority health-risk
behaviors among youth through representative national, state, and
local surveys (5). The 1990 YRBS used a three-stage sample design
to obtain a representative sample of 11,631 students in grades 9-12
in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the
Virgin Islands. Students were asked on how many of the 14 days
preceding the survey they had had "at least 20 minutes of hard
exercise that made you breathe heavily and made your heart beat
fast." Students who reported having engaged in this kind of
exercise 3 or more days per week were classified as vigorously
active. Students also were asked if they had exercised in a sports
league, dance class, recreational center, or any other community
center during the 14 days preceding the survey; how many hours a
day (on an average school day) they watched television and videos
during the 14 days preceding the survey; and on how many varsity or
junior varsity sports teams they played at school during the 12
months preceding the survey.
Of all students in grades 9-12, 37.0% reported being
vigorously active three or more times per week (Table 1). Vigorous
activity was significantly less common among female students
(24.8%) than among male students (49.6%), among black students
(29.2%) than among either white (39.3%) or Hispanic (34.5%)
students, and among female students in grades 11 (23.4%) and 12
(17.3%) than among those in grade 9 (30.6%).
For both sexes, students who were vigorously active were
significantly more likely to participate on varsity or junior
varsity sports teams and to exercise at a community center than
were those who were not vigorously active (Table 2). Female
students who were vigorously active were significantly less likely
to watch television or videos 3 or more hours per day (32.5%) than
were female students who were not vigorously active (40.4%).
Reported by: Div of Chronic Disease Control and Community
Intervention, Div of Adolescent and School Health, National Center
for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC.
Editorial Note
Editorial Note: A national health objective for the year 2000
(objective 1.4) is to increase to at least 75% the proportion of
youth aged 6-17 years who engage in vigorous physical activity that
promotes the development of cardiorespiratory fitness (i.e., 3 or
more days per week for 20 or more minutes per occasion) (6). Data
in this report indicate that current levels of vigorous physical
activity among high school students will have to more than double
to reach this objective.
Moreover, findings in this report suggest that participation
in vigorous physical activity among high school students may be
decreasing. The National Children and Youth Fitness Study conducted
in 1984 showed that 61.7% of students in grades 10-12 participated
in vigorous physical activity for 20 or more minutes 3 or more days
per week (7); only 36.1% of students in grades 10-12 reported doing
so in the current report. Participation in school physical
education also may be decreasing (8).
Race/ethnicity- and sex-specific differences described in this
report are consistent with patterns of physical activity observed
among adults (9). Lower levels of physical activity characteristic
of black adults and adult females of all races may be manifest by
grade 9. Interventions to increase physical activity among persons
in the United States need to target school-aged youth to help
reverse declining levels of physical activity and break patterns of
sedentary living. School physical education, sports teams, and
community recreation centers should be used to help promote
lifelong physical activity (6,8). Educators, families, physicians,
and public health officials need to establish policies and programs
that help increase access to physical activity facilities for youth
and encourage youth to participate regularly in vigorous physical
activity (6).
References
Powell KE, Caspersen CJ, Koplan JK, Ford ES. Physical activity
and chronic diseases. Am J Clin Nutr 1989;49:999-1006.
Paffenbarger RS Jr, Hyde RT, Wing AL, Hsieh CC. Physical
activity, all-cause mortality, and longevity of college alumni. N
Engl J Med 1986;314:605-13.
Malina RM. Growth, exercise, fitness, and later outcomes. In:
Bouchard C, Shephard RJ, Stephens T, Sutton JR, MacPherson BD, eds.
Exercise, fitness, and health. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics,
1990:637-59.
Webber LS, Cresanta JL, Croft JB, Srinivasan SR, Berenson GS.
Transitions of cardiovascular risk from adolescence to young
adulthood--The Bogalusa Heart Study: II. alterations in
anthropometric blood pressure and serum lipoprotein variables. J
Chronic Dis 1986;39:91-103.
Kolbe LJ. An epidemiological surveillance system to monitor the
prevalence of youth behaviors that most affect health. Health
Education 1990;21:44-8.
Public Health Service. Healthy people 2000: national health
promotion and disease prevention objectives--full report, with
commentary. Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human
Services, Public Health Service, 1991:101-3; DHHS publication no.
(PHS)91-50212.
Ross JG, Dotson CO, Gilbert GG. The National Children and Youth
Fitness Study: are kids getting appropriate activity? Journal of
Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance 1985;56:40-3.
CDC. Participation of high school students in school physical
education--United States, 1990. MMWR 1991;40:607,613-5.
Caspersen CJ, Christenson GM, Pollard RA. Status of the 1990
physical fitness and exercise objectives--evidence from NHIS 1985.
Public Health Rep 1986;101:587-92.
Disclaimer
All MMWR HTML documents published before January 1993 are electronic conversions from ASCII text into HTML. This conversion may have resulted in character translation or format errors in the HTML version. Users should not rely on this HTML document, but are referred to the original MMWR paper copy for the official text, figures, and tables. An original paper copy of this issue can be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402-9371; telephone: (202) 512-1800. Contact GPO for current prices.
**Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to mmwrq@cdc.gov.
