Physical Activity of Croatian Population: Cross-sectional Study Using International Physical Activity Questionnaire

Aim

To determine the physical activity level of the Croatian population in different domains of everyday life.

Methods

A random stratified sample of 1032 Croatians aged 15 years and older was interviewed using the official Croatian long version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Total physical activity and physical activity in each of the 4 life domains – work, transport, domestic and garden, and leisure-time – were estimated. Physical activity was expressed as metabolic equivalent-hours per week (MET-hour/week).

Results

Median total physical activity for the whole sample was 58.2 MET-hour/week. Median physical activity in MET-hour/week was 30.4 for work, 5.0 for transportation, 13.1 for domestic and garden, and 6.0 for leisure-time domain. The lowest physical activity was found in the 15-24 age group (42.7 MET-hour/week) and the highest in the 55-64 age group (72.0 MET-hour/week). Multiple regression analysis showed a significant relationship of socio-demographic and health-related characteristics (size of settlements, household income, educational level, age, body mass index, self-rated physical health, and self-rated mental health) with physical activity in all domains (P < 0.001).

Conclusion

Studies on physical activity in transition countries should include the domains of work and domestic and garden, since if only leisure-time domain is examined, the total physical activity level could be underestimated. As the lowest physical activity was reported by adolescents and young adults, strategies for increasing physical activity in this age group should be developed.Insufficient physical activity is related to the progress of different diseases (1-11), causing 1.9 million premature deaths per year globally (12). Furthermore, physical activity is closely related to mental health and well-being (13-17). Therefore, many strategies for promoting physical activity have been developed and implemented, such as “Global Strategy of Diet, Physical Activity and Health” (18) and “Healthy People 2010” (19). The development of these strategies created a need for standardization of physical activity measurements, which would allow the comparison between different studies from different countries. Although, there is no internationally accepted measure of physical activity (12), International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) is widely used in physical activity studies across the world (20). The long form of IPAQ measures frequency, duration, and intensity of physical activity in 4 domains of life: work, transport, domestic and garden, and leisure-time. Studies have shown an acceptable validity and reliability of IPAQ for use in population-based studies of physical activity (21,22).Although in the European Union and other developed countries a number of population-based studies on physical activity have been conducted, in transition European countries, such as Croatia, there is a lack of such data. In Croatia, there have been some studies on the prevalence of physical inactivity (23,24), but there has been no quantitative data on physical activity, especially with physical activity expressed as metabolic units (MET), which are the units that enable comparison between the studies. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no population-based study in Croatia which examined all 4 domains of physical activity. The aim of our study was to determine physical activity levels in a representative sample of Croatian population aged 15 years and older, using the long form Croatian version of IPAQ.