National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) Celebrating the First 50 years: 1957-2007

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Comparison of Two Sets of Physical Activity Questions

Table A

Table B

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** Adjusted for sex, age, race and Hispanic ethnicity, educational attainment, and poverty status using the NHIS imputed income files. The 2000 projected U.S. population was used as the standard population for age adjustment, with age groups 18-44, 45-64, and 65 and over
¹ Based on the questions: "Would you say {your/name} health in general is excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor?"
² Based on a series of questions asking about the degree of difficulty the respondent how much difficulty he or she has doing activities without the help of another person or special equipment: walking 1/4 mile, walking up 10 steps, standing for 2 hours, sitting for 2 hours, stooping, bending, or kneeling; reaching overhead; grasping small objects; lifting or carrying 10 pounds; or pushing or pulling large objects. Responses to each consisted of: not at all difficult, only a little difficult; somewhat difficult; very difficult can't do at all, or does not do the activity. Adults were classified as having difficulty if they responded "somewhat" or "very" difficult to at least one of these activities. Adults who did not do the activity were excluded from the analysis, as were those who could not provide an answer to any of them.
³ Difficulty walking is based on answers of "very difficult" and "can't do at all" to the question about walking a quarter mile shown in footnote #2.
⁴ Based on the question "Have you ever been told by a doctor or other health professional that you had diabetes or sugar diabetes?" Borderline and diabetes only during pregnancy were excluded.
⁵ Based on a set of two questions: "Have you ever been told you had hypertension or high blood pressure?" and "Have you been told you had hypertension two or more times?"
⁶ Based on a series of questions about frequency of negative moods during the past 30 days: sad, nervous, restless, hopeless, feeling everything is an effort, and worthless. Response choices were: all of the time; most of the time; some of the time; little of the time; none of the time. A composite index of these items was developed by Kessler et al. with a score of 13 or greater representing serious psychological distress [See reference #10].
⁷ Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30.0 or greater. BMI is calculated, based on self-reported height and weight, using the formula: weight (in kilograms/ [height (in meters)]^2
8 Based on a series of questions about frequency, duration, and intensity of 23 sports-related leisure-time physical activities during the two weeks preceding the interview. Total average daily kilocalorie expenditure was estimated. Activity level was classified as "sedentary," moderately active," or "very active" based on average daily kilocalorie expenditure over the two week period.
⁹ Based on a set of four questions about leisure-time physical activity that were introduced with a phrase specifying that the questions were asking about exercise, sports and physically active hobbies done in leisure time. The questions asked about the frequency and duration of light-moderate and vigorous leisure-time physical activities lasting at least 10 minutes at a time. Adults were classified in terms of regularity of their activity: "Inactive" refers to adults who engaged in no light-moderate or vigorous LTPA. "Some activity, less than regular" refers to adults who engaged in some activity but less that the amount needed to qualify as "regularly active." "Regularly active" adults engaged in light-moderate activity at least 5 times per week for at least 30 minutes each time or vigorous activity at least 3 times a week for at least 20 minutes each time or both.