Abstract
BACKGROUND: The aim of many physical activity interventions is to develop life-long habits of regular exercise and sports activities in leisure time. Previous studies that assessed tracking (i.e. the stability of a trait over the lifespan) of leisure time exercise behaviour across various parts of the life span have treated it as a uniform construct by summing all types of leisure time exercise activities into a single summary score for the total volume of exercise. This study provides new insight by additionally determining tracking across leisure time exercise activities in six different domains: (1) team-based versus solitary activities, (2) competitive versus non-competitive activities, and (3) externally paced versus internally paced activities. We also assessed which of the domains of exercise activities best predicted total volume of exercise at follow-up.
METHODS: A large dataset (N = 43,889) from the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR) was used to analyse the tracking of exercise behaviour over time. Using this dataset, we were able to examine tracking as a function of baseline age (8 to 80 years) and tracking duration (2 to 22-year follow-up), taking into account sex differences, using generalized estimating equations.
RESULTS: Two-year tracking coefficients are moderate to high for total volume of exercise across ages at baseline, ranging from .38 to .77 with a median of .57. Tracking coefficients tend to decrease as the distance to follow-up increases, down to a median of .38 for the 22-year tracking coefficients. The patterns of tracking were largely domain-independent and were largely similar for solitary, competitive, non-competitive, externally and internally paced activities. With the exception of team-based activities, tracking was seen to increase as a function of baseline age. Cross-domain tracking did not favour any specific domain of exercise activity as the best predictor for total volume of exercise behaviour and this was true at all baseline ages.
CONCLUSION: We conclude that exercise behaviour is moderately to highly stable across the life span. In particular in adulthood, where the tracking of exercise mimics that of a classical behavioural trait like personality. This stability reinforces existing evidence that exercise habits are hard to change, but at the same time suggests that successful intervention leading to the adoption of exercise habits will tend to last.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 17 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-11 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity |
Volume | 16 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 4 Feb 2019 |
Funding
Netherland Twin Register: Funding was obtained from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMW) grants 904–61-090, 985–10-002, 912–10-020, 904–61-193,480–04-004, 463–06-001, 451–04-034, 400–05-717, Addiction-31160008, 016–115-035, 481–08-011, 056–32-010, NWO-Middelgroot-911-09-032, OCW_NWO Gravity program − 024.001.003, NWO-Groot 480–15-001/674, Centre for Medical Systems Biology (CSMB, NWO Genomics), Biobank-ing and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI –NL, 184.021.007 and 184.033.111); Spinozapremie (NWO-56-464-14192), KNAW Academy Professor Award (PAH/6635) to DIB; Amsterdam Public Health research institute (former EMGO+), Neuroscience Amsterdam research institute (former NCA); the European Science Foundation (ESF, EU/QLRT-2001-01254), the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7-HEALTH-F4– 2007-2013, grant 01413: ENGAGE and grant 602768: ACTION); the European Research Council (ERC AG 230374, ERC SG 284167 and ERC CG 771057); the National Institutes of Health (NIH R01 DK092127–04); a donation by Mr. JG Landers; and the Avera Institute for Human Genetics, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (USA).
Funders | Funder number |
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Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute | |
Avera Institute for Human Genetics | |
BBMRI | 184.033.111, 184.021.007, NWO-56-464-14192 |
Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure | |
Centre for Medical Systems Biology | |
ENGAGE | 602768 |
European Community’s Seventh Framework Program | |
FP7-HEALTH-F4 | 01413 |
NWO-Groot | 480–15-001/674 |
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research | |
Neuroscience Amsterdam research institute | |
National Institutes of Health | |
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases | R01DK092127 |
European Research Council | CG 771057, AG 230374, SG 284167 |
European Science Foundation | EU/QLRT-2001-01254 |
Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen | PAH/6635 |
ZonMw | 451–04-034, 904–61-090, 463–06-001, 985–10-002, 056–32-010, 912–10-020, 400–05-717, 016–115-035, 904–61-193,480–04-004, NWO-Middelgroot-911-09-032, 481–08-011 |
Keywords
- Behavioural trends
- Competitive exercise
- Leisure time physical activity
- Lifespan
- Longitudinal stability
- Team exercise