Abstract

Despite claims that 100 million American adults swim, 75 million bicycle, and 35 million jog, evidence suggests that these figures do not accurately indicate how many exercise on a regular basis. This paper provides interview data on the physical activity behavior of 15,381 American adults. Projections based on the results of those interviews indicate that during 1984, approximately 77 million adults (almost 53) participated at least once in moderate to high levels of physical activity, but only about 27 million (18.6) were active on more than 60 days. The US Department of Health and Human Services has set a goal of having 60 of adults engaging regularly in vigorous forms of activity by 1990. These data should be helpful in providing some notion as to how close we are to this goal. Verf.-Referat