Inactivity still a big problem

A quarter of American adults engage in little or no regular physical activity, according to a national report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Such inactivity is in large part to blame for the nation’s alarming rise in obesity. The CDC estimates that 61% of the nation’s adults now are either overweight or obese.

The report, titled “Physical Activity Among Adults: United States, 2000,” was released in May and is among the first to examine physical activity at work, during leisure time or in some combination of the two. Previous research focused exclusively on one or the other.

The report, based on 32,000 interviews conducted by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, looked at everything from walking the dog to taking the stairs at work to assess levels of physical activity.

But even when considering an entire day’s worth of activities -- from household chores to gardening -- most Americans fall woefully short of government recommendations.

Health educators advise 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week that produces light sweating or a moderate increase in breathing and heart rate.

Only about a fifth of American adults engage in a high level of overall physical activity, the report said.

The report also identified marital status, income and geography as significant influences on exercise levels. For example, married women were more likely than never-married women to work out at a high level.

Meanwhile, adults in poverty were three times as likely to be physically inactive compared with those in the highest income, and Southerners were the least active of adults in any region.

-- Martin Miller