Original article
Covariation of Adolescent Physical Activity and Dietary Behaviors Over 12 Months

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2007.05.018Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

This study examined covariation among changes in dietary, physical activity, and sedentary behaviors over 12 months among adolescents participating in a health behavior intervention. Evidence of covariation among behaviors would suggest multi-behavior interventions could have synergistic effects.

Methods

Prospective analyses were conducted with baseline and 12-month assessments from a randomized controlled trial to promote improved diet, physical activity, and sedentary behaviors (experimental condition) or SUN protection behaviors (comparison condition). Participants were adolescent girls and boys (N = 878) aged 11–15 years on entry. The main outcomes were: diet, based on multiple 24-hour recalls (total fat, grams of fiber, servings of fruit and vegetables, total calories); average daily energy expenditure (kcals/kg) based on 7-day physical activity recall interviews; daily minutes of moderate-vigorous physical activity minutes from accelerometery; and self-reported daily hours of sedentary behavior.

Results

Covariation was found between fat and calories (r = .16), fiber and calories (r = .53), fiber and fruit/vegetables (r = .53), calories and fruit/vegetables (r = .34), and fruit and vegetables and sedentary behavior (r = −.12) for the total sample (all p values < .01). The pattern of findings was similar for most subgroups defined by gender and study condition.

Conclusions

The strongest covariation was observed for diet variables that are inherently related (calories and fat, fiber, and fruit/vegetables). Little covariation was detected within or between other diet, physical activity and sedentary behavior domains suggesting that interventions to improve these behaviors in adolescents need to include specific program components for each target behavior of interest.

Section snippets

Intervention and participants

The Patient-centered Assessment and Counseling for Exercise and Nutrition (PACE+) Project for adolescents was conducted from 2001– 2004. The PACE+ intervention aimed to increase physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake and decrease dietary fat and sedentary behaviors. Participants were randomly assigned to receive the PACE+ intervention or participate in a sun protection behavior change intervention (SUN). Both interventions were based on constructs from Social Cognitive Theory and the

Results

Of the 878 enrolled in the study, 690 completed 12-month measures and were included in the current analysis. There were no differences at baseline on the behaviors included in this study between completers and noncompleters (all p > .10). There were no differences in gender, age, body weight, or highest level of parent education between those randomized to the PACE+ and SUN groups. More non-white adolescents were enrolled in the PACE+ (45%) than in the SUN treatment group (38%) [37].

Means and

Discussion

In this large sample of adolescents, diet, physical activity, and sedentary behaviors did not covary over a 1-year period. Similarly, no covariation was found between physical activity and sedentary behaviors, physical activity and diet, or diet and sedentary behaviors. An implication of these results is that intervening to improve physical activity, diet, or sedentary behaviors among adolescents would be unlikely to affect any of the other behaviors positively or negatively.

Exploratory

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