Premium
Diversity of leisure‐time sport activities in adolescence as a predictor of leisure‐time physical activity in adulthood
Author(s) -
Mäkelä S.,
Aaltonen S.,
Korhonen T.,
Rose R. J.,
Kaprio J.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of medicine and science in sports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.575
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1600-0838
pISSN - 0905-7188
DOI - 10.1111/sms.12837
Subject(s) - quartile , leisure time , demography , young adult , confounding , physical activity , psychology , diversity (politics) , early adulthood , multinomial logistic regression , association (psychology) , logistic regression , gerontology , medicine , developmental psychology , confidence interval , physical therapy , sociology , anthropology , machine learning , computer science , psychotherapist
Because sustained physical activity is important for a healthy life, this paper examined whether a greater diversity of sport activities during adolescence predicts higher levels of leisure‐time physical activity ( LTPA ) in adulthood. From sport activity participation reported by 17‐year‐old twins, we formed five groups: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5+ different sport activities. At follow‐up in their mid‐thirties, twins were divided into four activity classes based on LTPA , including active commuting. Multinomial regression analyses, adjusted for several confounders, were conducted separately for male (N=1288) and female (N=1770) participants. Further, conditional logistic regression analysis included 23 twin pairs discordant for both diversity of sport activities in adolescence and LTPA in adulthood. The diversity of leisure‐time sport activities in adolescence had a significant positive association with adulthood LTPA among females. Membership in the most active adult quartile, compared to the least active quartile, was predicted by participation in 2, 3, 4, and 5+ sport activities in adolescence with odds ratios: 1.52 ( P =.11), 1.86 ( P =.02), 1.29 ( P =.39), and 3.12 ( P =5.4e‐05), respectively. Within‐pair analyses, limited by the small sample of twins discordant for both adolescent activities and adult outcomes, did not replicate the association. A greater diversity of leisure‐time sport activities in adolescence predicts higher levels of LTPA in adulthood in females, but the causal nature of this association remains unresolved.