Abstract

Background: Lack of physical activity is one of the major risk factors for obesity in adolescents. Before adopting the guidelines of the World Health Organization, The Ministry of Education in Taiwan recommended 210 minutes of moderate physical activity weekly for adolescents, equivalent to 840 METsmin/ wk. An additional 90 min of vigorous physical activity weekly is recommended for those who are more fit, equivalent to a total of 1560 METs-min/wk. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between meeting the previous Taiwanese guidelines and the risk for being overweight, obese, and underweight, in adolescents.
Methods: The participants include 421 boys and 405 girls from middle schools. A multinomial logit model was adopted to simultaneously compare all weight categories.
Results: Meeting the level of 840 METs-min/wk was associated with lower risks for obesity (odds ratio, OR = 0.41, p < .1) and being underweight (OR = 0.51, p < .1) in boys, while meeting the level of 1560 METsmin/ wk was associated a lower risk for obesity (OR = 0.30, p < .05) in girls.
Conclusions: The lower levels of physical activity can be a more practical, yet still effective, goal for policy implementation in Asian countries.