Fifteen-Year Longitudinal Trends in Walking Patterns and Their Impact on Weight Change

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Citation

Gordon-Larsen, Penny; Hou, Ningqi; Sidney, Steve; Sternfeld, Barbara; Lewis, Cora E.; Jacobs, David R., Jr.; & Popkin, Barry M. (2009). Fifteen-Year Longitudinal Trends in Walking Patterns and Their Impact on Weight Change. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 89(1), 19-26. PMCID: PMC2715291

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although walking is the most popular leisure-time activity for adults, few long-term, longitudinal studies have examined the association between walking, an affordable and accessible form of physical activity, and weight gain.
OBJECTIVE: The objective was to evaluate the association between changes in leisure-time walking and weight gain over a 15-y period.
DESIGN: Prospective data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study of 4995 men and women aged 18-30 y at baseline (1985-1986) from 4 US cities and reexamined 2, 5, 7, 10, and 15 y later. Sex-stratified, repeated-measures, conditional regression modeling with data from all 6 examination periods (n = 23,633 observations) was used to examine associations between walking and annualized 15-y weight change, with control for 15-y nonwalking physical activity, baseline weight (and their interaction), marital status, education, smoking, calorie intake, and baseline age, race, and field center.
RESULTS: Mean (+/-SE) baseline weights were 77.0 +/- 0.3 kg (men) and 66.2 +/- 0.3 kg (women), weight gain was approximately 1 kg/y, and the mean duration of walking at baseline was <15 min/d. After accounting for nonwalking physical activity, calorie intake, and other covariates, we found a substantial association between walking and annualized weight change; the greatest association was for those with a larger baseline weight. For example, for women at the 75th percentile of baseline weight, 0.5 h of walking/d was associated with 8 kg less weight gain over 15 y compared with women with no leisure time walking.
CONCLUSION: Walking throughout adulthood may attenuate the long-term weight gain that occurs in most adults.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.2008.26147

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2009

Journal Title

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Author(s)

Gordon-Larsen, Penny
Hou, Ningqi
Sidney, Steve
Sternfeld, Barbara
Lewis, Cora E.
Jacobs, David R., Jr.
Popkin, Barry M.

PMCID

PMC2715291

ORCiD

Gordon-Larsen - 0000-0001-5322-4188
Popkin - 0000-0001-9495-9324