Seasonal Variations in Physical Activity Domains among Rural and Urban Bangladeshis Using a Culturally Relevant Past Year Physical Activity Questionnaire (PYPAQ).

Seasonal Variations in Physical Activity Domains among Rural and Urban Bangladeshis Using a Culturally Relevant Past Year Physical Activity Questionnaire (PYPAQ). J Environ Public Health. 2019;2019:2375474 Authors: Mumu SJ, Fahey PP, Ali L, Rahman AKMF, Merom D Abstract While the effect of weather and seasons on physical activity (PA) is well documented for leisure-time physical activities in western countries, scant information is available for developing countries where lifestyle PA is the major source of energy expenditure (EE). In Bangladesh, the traditional calendar divides the year to six seasons that last two months each: summer, rainy, autumn, late autumn, winter, and spring. We developed the Past Year Physical Activity Questionnaire to record culturally relevant physical activities and to help assess the seasonal variation in total and domain-specific PA in Bangladesh. We have applied this tool to 162 men and women aged 18-60 years residing in Dhaka city and in the northern rural district of Thakurgaon. Repeated measures analysis of variance (RMANOVA) was used to test for evidence of variation in PA between place and seasons. The age- and gender-adjusted model revealed significantly lower levels of EE in urban residents compared to rural residents across all seasons and domains. We also found evidence of seasonal variations in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) MET-min/weekamong rural participants only; for total ...
Source: Journal of Environmental and Public Health - Category: Environmental Health Tags: J Environ Public Health Source Type: research