Ambulatory activities in Turkish adults without exercise habits

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine ambulatory activities in healthy Turkish adults without exercise habits. Material and Methods: This study was conducted in 2006-2007 education year in Bursa/Turkey. Ambulatory activity in participants between 18-85 years (women, n= 1000; men, n= 915) assessed by daily pedometer steps. The relations of parameters, such as their age, body mass index (BMI), education, annual income, marital status, number of children, smoking and alcohol consumption were determined with number of daily steps. Results: Median (interqr. range) steps/day in women and men respectively were 7854 (5366) and 8760 (5596) steps/day (p= 0.000). In both women and men, there was significantly negative relation between daily step number and age (women r= -.268, p= 0.000; men r=-.126, p=0.000), and BMI (women r= -.148, p= 0.000; men r= -.074, p= 0.044) values; there was a significantly positive relation between daily step number and annual income. Conclusion: Ambulatory activities of Turkish women are less than men. The finding of this study revealed that in both genders, as the age and BMI increases, daily step numbers decrease, and as annual family income increases, daily step number increases as well. As the number of the children increases, occurs a decrease in the daily step numbers, especially of the women. © 2010 by Türkiye Klinikleri.