Relationship between physical activity, sedentarism and obesity in adults, Colombia, 2015

Introduction. Physical inactivity and sedentary behaviors were shown to be risk factors in the prevalence of diseases such as obesity. Objective. To conduct an analysis of the relationship between physical activity, sedentary lifestyle and nutritional status in the population aged 18 to 64 years in Colombia, 2015. Materials and methods. A secondary analysis of the 2015 Colombian nutrition survey was done, using sociodemographic variables (age, sex, ethnicity, geographic area, region, wealth index), along with weight, height, physical activity and sedentary lifestyle. Proportions and 95% confidence intervals, chi-square, logistic regression and odds ratio were estimated. Results. The analyzed population included 16,607 individuals (54.8% women and 45.2% men) aged 18 to 64 years. Men were more overweight (37.6%) than women, while obesity was more frequent in women (22.1%). It was observed that 48.3% did not meet the physical activity recommendations; 56.9% of adults spent two or more hours a day watching screens. There was a significant association (p<0.050) between non-compliance with physical activity recommendations and obesity. In addition, complying with the physical activity recommendation decreases the probability of obesity by 1.25 times. Conclusion. Obesity is a health problem for the adult population, with a higher prevalence in women and in those over 30 years old. It is related to non-compliance with the recommendations about physical activity and sedentary behaviors (which are more prevalent in Afro-descendants), high wealth quartile status, and to reside in urban areas and to live in the Bogotá area.