Where do People Engage in Physical Activity? A Visualization Approach to the Domain Composition of Population Physical Activity.

Abstract

Background: Effective physical activity promotion requires a comprehensive understanding of physical activity across work, household, travel, and recreation domains. Although previous studies have assessed the relative contributions of each domain to total physical activity using averages, the distribution among diverse individuals remains unclear. We aimed to develop a visualization approach to assess the distribution of the relative contributions of each domain to physical activity.

Methods: We used nationally representative data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2017-2018 for the United States and 2020 Sasakawa Sports Foundation National Sports-Life Survey for Japan; both utilized the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire. We calculated each domain's relative contribution to total physical activity and created histograms of ternary plots.

Results: The distribution of each domain's relative contributions to total physical activity demonstrated that most participants from the United States and Japan concentrated their activity in 1 or 2 domains. However, clusters of domain composition differed between the 2 countries. In the United States, work/household contributions were highest (50.6%), with fewer individuals having high travel contributions. In Japan, travel contributed the most (41.7%), with many clusters showing low work/household contributions. The average total moderate and vigorous physical activity in both countries was higher among those with greater work/household contributions.

Conclusions: Our novel visualization approach demonstrated that most participants concentrate their physical activity in 1 or 2 domains. Given the diverse ways to meet physical activity guidelines, it is crucial to adopt a systems approach that considers each domain, from enhancing active transportation to promoting recreational physical activity.