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Physical Activity among Adults by Year, New Jersey and the United States, 2011 to 2017

Indicator Report Data View Options

Why Is This Important?

Maintenance of a physically active lifestyle is recognized in public health as one of the essential features of a healthy life. While it has long been known that physical activity can prevent heart disease, newer studies suggest that, on average, physically active persons outlive those who are inactive.

Definition

Among adults, the proportion who engage in aerobic physical activity of at least moderate intensity for at least 150 minutes/week, or 75 minutes/week of vigorous intensity, or an equivalent combination.

Data Notes

Data have been age-adjusted to the U.S. 2000 standard population.

Data Sources

How the Measure is Calculated

  • Numerator:

    Number of adults aged 18 years and older who meet aerobic physical activity recommendations of getting at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity, or an equivalent combination of moderate-vigorous intensity activity.

  • Denominator:

    Number of surveyed adults aged 18 years and older (excludes unknowns or refusals ).

Data Issues

Data from the New Jersey Behavioral Risk Factor Survey are intended to be representative of all non-institutionalized adult residents of New Jersey. Due to resource issues, however, adults with limited personal access to phone service or limited command of either English or Spanish are not represented. As with all surveys, also, some error results from nonresponse (e.g., refusal to participate in the survey or to answer specific questions), and faulty measurement (e.g., responses affected by social desirability or recall error). Data collection procedures intended to minimize such errors include the use of strict calling protocols, good questionnaire design, standardization of interviewer behavior, interviewer training, and frequent, on-site interviewer monitoring and supervision. Statistical weighting procedures are also used to minimize the potential impact of disproportionate representation of demographic subgroups defined in terms of age, sex, race, ethnicity, education level, marital status, home ownership, and county of residence. (See also [[a href="query/BRFSSQueryTechNotes.html" Behavioral Risk Factor Survey Data Description and Technical Notes]].)

Related Health Objectives and Indicators


  • Health Initiative: HP2020

    Healthy People 2020 Objective PA-2.1

    U.S. Target: Increase the proportion of adults who engage in aerobic physical activity of at least moderate intensity for at least 150 minutes/week, or 75 minutes/week of vigorous intensity, or an equivalent combination to 47.9 percent by 2020.0
    https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/physical-activity


  • Health Initiative: HNJ2020

    Healthy NJ 2020 Objective NF-3a

    NJ Target: Increase the proportion of of adults who meet current Federal physical activity guidelines for moderate or vigorous physical activity to 58.5 percent (age-adjusted) for the total population, 54.1% for Asians, 55.7% for Blacks, 48.0% for Hispanics, and 62.8% for Whites by 2020.0
    https://www.nj.gov/health/chs/hnj2020/topics/nutrition-physical-activity.shtml



Risk Factors

Note: [[a href="query/builder/njbrfs/RecPhysicalAct/RecPhysicalActAA11_.html" Custom data views]] of the prevalence of physical activity among New Jersey adults by selected '''sociodemographic and other characteristics''' can be generated using the New Jersey Behavioral Risk Factor Survey interactive query module.

Related Risk Factors Indicators:

Related Health Status Outcomes Indicators:

Health Topic Pages Related to: Physical Activity among Adults

Indicator Data Last Updated On 05/24/2024, Published on 03/06/2025
Center for Health Statistics, New Jersey Department of Health, PO Box 360, Trenton, NJ 08625-0360, e-mail: chs@doh.nj.gov (https://www.nj.gov/health/chs)