The examination of a decline in steps in the last decade and its reason -A serial cross-sectional study in male college freshmen- / 体力科学

ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to investigate whether daily steps in male college students have actually decreased in the last decade. If the decline in steps is found, we additionally aimed to examine whether the decline in steps is attributed to a reduction of exercise or, rather, to a reduction of non-exercise activity. A serial cross-sectional study was performed from 2003 to 2012 at the Osaka Institute of Technology. A total of 1,215 male college freshmen were analyzed. Every year, scores of the physical activity levels were evaluated by a questionnaire, and we measured daily steps of participants using a pedometer during usual 1 week. Daily behavior record was also analyzed (n = 69). There were no significant trends or differences in characteristics of participants and the scores of physical activity levels throughout the 10 years. However, interestingly, significant decreasing trends were observed in the steps of average and weekend. In addition, daily behavior record analyses indicate that a cell-phone or a PC usage increased significantly in both weekday and weekend and that playing video games increased significantly in weekday. Therefore, these data support the view that daily steps have actually reduced in the last decade. Our findings also raise the possibility that the decline in steps may be related to the decline in non-exercise activity associated with the increase in a cell-phone or a PC usage and playing the video games.