%0 Journal Article
%T Relationship of obesity to physical activity, domestic activities, and sedentary behaviours: cross-sectional findings from a national cohort of over 70,000 Thai adults
%A Emily Banks
%A Lynette Lim
%A Sam-Ang Seubsman
%A Chris Bain
%A Adrian Sleigh
%J BMC Public Health
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2458-11-762
%X 74,981 adult students aged 20-50 from all regions of Thailand attending the Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University in 2005-2006 completed a self-administered questionnaire, including providing appropriate self-reported data on height, weight and PA. We conducted cross-sectional analyses of the relationship between obesity, defined according to Asian criteria (Body Mass Index (BMI) ¡Ý25), and measures of physical activity and sedentary behaviours (exercise-related PA; leisure-related computer use and television watching ("screen-time"); housework and gardening; and sitting-time) adjusted for age, sex, income and education and compared according to a range of personal characteristics.Overall, 15.6% of participants were obese, with a substantially greater prevalence in men (22.4%) than women (9.9%). Inverse associations between being obese and total weekly sessions of exercise-related PA were observed in men, with a significantly weaker association seen in women (p(interaction) < 0.0001). Increasing obesity with increasing screen-time was seen in all population groups examined; there was an overall 18% (15-21%) increase in obesity with every two hours of additional daily screen-time. There were 33% (26-39%) and 33% (21-43%) reductions in the adjusted risk of being obese in men and women, respectively, reporting housework/gardening daily versus seldom or never. Exercise-related PA, screen-time and housework/gardening each had independent associations with obesity.Domestic activities and sedentary behaviours are important in relation to obesity in Thailand, independent of exercise-related physical activity. In this setting, programs to prevent and treat obesity through increasing general physical activity need to consider overall energy expenditure and address a wide range of low-intensity high-volume activities in order to be effective.The prevalence of obesity is rising rapidly in most Asian countries, with increases of 46% in Japan and over 400% in China observed from
%K Obesity
%K Thailand
%K physical activity
%K inactivity
%K domestic activity
%K sedentary behaviours
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/11/762