Background: We aimed to estimate the prevalence of physical inactivity in all districts of Iran and the disparities between subgroups defined by various measures.
Methods: Small area estimation method was employed to estimate the prevalence of physical inactivity in districts based on the remaining districts in which data on the level of physical inactivity were available. Various comparisons on the estimations were done based on socioeconomic, sex, and geographical stratifications to determine the disparities of physical inactivity among districts of Iran.
Results: All districts of Iran had a higher prevalence of physical inactivity compared with the world average. The estimated prevalence of physical inactivity among all men in all districts was 46.8% (95% uncertainty interval, 45.9%-47.7%). The highest and lowest estimated disparity ratio of physical inactivity were 1.95 and 1.14 in males, and 2.25 and 1.09 in females, respectively. Females significantly had a higher prevalence of 63.5% (62.7%-64.3%). Among both sexes, the poor population and urban residents significantly had higher prevalence of physical inactivity than rich population and rural residents, respectively.
Conclusions: The high prevalence of physical inactivity among Iranian adult population suggests the urgent need to adopt population-wide action plans and policies to handle this major public health problem and avert the probable burden.
Keywords: national survey; socioeconomic status; urbanization.