Activities Contributing to Total Energy Expenditure in the United States: Results from the NHAPS Study
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Activities Contributing to Total Energy Expenditure in the United States: Results from the NHAPS Study Linda Dong†1, Gladys Block*†2 and Shelly Mandel†2 Address: 1Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA and 2School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA Email: Linda Dong - [email protected]; Gladys Block* - [email protected]; Shelly Mandel - [email protected] * Corresponding author †Equal contributors
Published: 12 February 2004 International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 2004, 1:4
Received: 09 September 2003 Accepted: 12 February 2004
This article is available from: http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/1/1/4 © 2004 Dong et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.
Abstract Background: Physical activity is increasingly recognized as an important factor influencing health and disease status. Total energy expenditure, both low-intensity and high-intensity, contributes to maintenance of healthy body weight. This paper presents the results of a quantitative approach to determining the activities that contribute to total energy expenditure in the United States. Methods: Data from the National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS) were used. In 1992– 1994 the NHAPS sampled 4,185 females and 3,330 males, aged 18 years and over, weighted to be representative of the 48 contiguous United States. A detailed report of each activity performed in the previous 24 hours was obtained. A score was created for each activity, by multiplying duration and intensity for each individual and summing across individuals. This score was then used to rank each activity according to its contribution to total population energy expenditure, for the total sample and separately for each gender, race, age, region, and season. Results: This analysis reveals our society to be primarily sedentary; leisure time physical activity contributed only approximately 5% of the population's total energy expenditure. Not counting sleeping, the largest contributor to energy expenditure was "Driving a car", followed by "Office work" and "Watching TV". Household activities accounted for 20.1% and 33.3% of energy expenditure for males and females respectively. Conclusion: The information presented in this paper may be useful in identifying common activities that could be appropriate targets for behavioral interventions to increase physical activity.
Background The United States Surgeon General's report on physical activity observed that a lack of physical activity has been associated with increased risk of mortality and morbidity from coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, colon cancer, diabetes, obesity related outcomes, and depression [1]. There is extensive agreement that regular highintensity physical activity has cardiovascular and oth
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