Relations between subdomains of physical activity, sedentary lifestyle and quality of life in young adult men

Abstract

To assess the relationship between physical activity (PA) in work, transport, domestic, and leisure-time domains (with sitting time included) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among young adult men. The long version of IPAQ and SF-36 Health Survey were used to assess PA and HRQoL, respectively, in 1425 voluntary 20- to 40-year-old Finnish male participants. Participants were divided into tertiles (MET-h/week): Lowest tertile (<38 MET-h/week), Middle tertile (38-100 MET-h/week), and Highest tertile (>100 MET-h/week). The IPAQ domain leisure-time PA predicted positively the Physical Component Summary (PCS) (β = 0.11, 95% CI: 0.06 to 0.16) and Mental Component Summary (MCS) (β = 0.11, 95% CI: 0.05 to 0.16) dimensions. Occupational PA predicted negative relationships in the PCS (β = −0.13, 95% CI: −0.19 to −0.07), and sitting time predicted negative relationships in the MCS dimension (β = −0.13, 95% CI: −0.18 to −0.07). In addition, a linear relationship was found between total PA level (including sitting time) and all of the IPAQ domains (<0.001). The Middle tertile had the highest leisure-time PA (38% of total PA), whereas the highest sitting time (28%) and lowest occupational PA (8%) were found in the Lowest tertile. The Highest tertile had the highest occupational PA (61%), while the leisure-time PA was the lowest (16%). Different PA domains appear to have positive and negative relationships to mental and physical aspects of HRQoL. Relatively high leisure-time PA indicated a better HRQoL regardless of the amount of total PA, while occupational PA and higher daily sitting time related negatively to HRQoL.