Patterns of physical activity among Russian youth: The Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey

Background: This paper describes physical activity the patterns of 2,101 Russian youth enrolled in the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS). The RLMS is a nationally representative household sample survey. Methods: Youth 14-18 years and parents of youth 6-13 years responded to survey questions about hours per week of light (cooking and laundry), moderate (walking, bicycling and sports), and vigorous physical activities (karate, wrestling and gymnastics). Sedentary activities (e.g. watching TV, music, homework) were categorized separately. Subjects were categorized for analyses by sex (boys n=1,072 and girls n=1,029) and age was grouped by school year: 6-11 years (elementary school), 12-16 years (high school), and 17-18 years. Mean hours per week by age and sex were computed for time spent in sedentary (≤1 MET), light (1.1-2.9 METs), moderate (3-6 METs), and vigorous (≥6 METs) activities. The proportion of youth meeting International PA Guidelines 1 (any intensity physical activity ≥30 min/day, ≥5 days per week) and 2 (moderate to vigorous physical activity for three sessions per week) was computed for each group. Results: Russian boys and girls spent approximately 28 h/week in sedentary activities. Boys spent more time than girls in moderate (5.2 versus 4.1 h/week) and vigorous (2.5 versus 1.8 h/week) intensity activities; girls spent more time in household activities. Nearly 70% of Russian youth met Guideline 1, and fewer than 45% met Guideline 2. Conclusions: The results suggest that most Russian youth enrolled in the RLMS obtain sufficient amounts of any level of physical activity per week, but that efforts may be needed to promote more regular moderate to vigorous physical activity.