Objective: This study looked at physical activity patterns among adults (≥ 18 years old) with self-reported asthma living in Nevada and investigated how physical inactivity is associated with asthma prevalence.
Methods: We examined data from the 2009 Nevada Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Different physical activity measures among individuals were compared by asthma status.
Results: Among 3840 respondents, 13.9% and 9.0% of them self-reported lifetime and current asthma, respectively. Significantly higher proportions of people with lifetime (12.9%) and current (17.7%) asthma did not engage in regular physical activity or exercise than those without lifetime (7.0%) and current (6.8%) asthma (p < .01). Over 30% of the respondents with asthma had no leisure-time physical activity compared with about 23% of those without asthma (p < .05). Moreover, these findings were statistically significant after adjusting for body mass index as well as other common sociodemographic variables. It was also found that asthmatic people spent significantly less time on moderate and vigorous physical activity than their nonasthmatic counterparts (223 minutes/week vs. 283 minutes/week for moderate physical activity; 214 minutes/week vs. 281 minutes/week for vigorous physical activity; p < .001). More than half of the respondents with asthma and close to half of those without asthma did not meet the current physical activity recommendation.
Conclusion: A majority of adults with self-reported asthma living in Nevada are physically inactive. It appears that physical inactivity is associated with an increased prevalence of asthma.