25-year Trends In The Prevalence Of Meeting Step-based Recommendations Among Japanese Adults

Japanese physical activity guidelines recommend that adults should walk 8,000 steps per day or more. However, limited data are available on long-term trends in the proportion of meeting these step-based recommendations. PURPOSE: To describe the changes in the proportion of Japanese adults who took more than 8,000 steps per day from 1995 to 2019, using national physical activity surveillance data. METHODS: We analyzed individual data from the Japanese National Health and Nutrition Surveys conducted from 1995 to 2019. A total of 148,079 adults (men: 45.9%, aged 20-64 years) who participated in a pedometer survey (AS-200, YAMASA) were included in this study. Steps were measured on a single day in November of every year. The prevalence of men and women who took more than 8,000 steps per day was calculated every five years (Y1: 1995-1999, Y2: 2000-2004, Y3: 2005-2009, Y4: 2010-2014, Y5: 2015-2019) to obtain sufficient sample size in each year. RESULTS: Overall, the prevalence of taking ≥8,000 steps per day was 44.5% in men and 37.1% in women. The prevalence of taking ≥8,000 steps per day has gradually decreased over the past 25 years for both men and women (men; Y1: 48.7%, Y2: 47.4%, Y3: 44.3%, Y4: 41.0%, Y5: 39.7%, women; Y1: 41.7%, Y2: 41.7%, Y3: 36.1%, Y4: 33.1%, Y5: 30.7%). CONCLUSION: Among Japanese men and women, the proportion of those meeting the recommended number of steps by the Japanese guidelines has declined by approximately 10% points over the past two decades. Policies and interventions to promote physical activity need to be further implemented Supported by the Japanese Health and Labor Sciences Research Grant 22FA1005 and 22FA2001