Adolescent physical activity profiles as determinants of emerging adults’ physical activity

Background: Although adolescent physical activity (PA) tracks into adulthood, it is unclear if adolescent participation in different types of PA predicts adult PA.

Purposes: 1) Identify adolescent profiles of PA participation. 2) Assess associations between these profiles and levels of PA in emerging adulthood.

Methods: We used data from 893 participants in the Monitoring Activities of Teenagers to Comprehend Their Habits (MATCH) longitudinal study. Participants self-reported their involvement in 36 different PAs three times per year for eight years during adolescence (11-18 years). They also reported their PA level (IPAQ) 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 years later when they were emerging adults (20, 21 and 22 years). We used group-based multi-trajectory models to identify longitudinal joint-trajectories of adolescent PA participation. We included these adolescent profiles in a mixed-distribution two parts model as predictors of i) the probability of reporting any PA during emerging adulthood, and ii) the PA level of emerging adults reporting PA.

Results: We identified five adolescent PA profiles: “non-participants” (9% of the sample), “dropouts” (30%), “active in unorganized PA” (19%), “active in organized PA” (27%), and “highly active through a variety of PA” (15%). Being categorized as “non-participant” or “dropout” during adolescence was associated with similar likelihoods of reporting PA and PA level during emerging adulthood. In contrast with “non-participants”, those in the “active-unorganized” (OR, 95% CI: 2.9, 2.1-3.8), “active-organized” (2.4, 1.7-3.2), and “highly active-variety” (4.2, 3.3-5.1) were considerably more likely to report any PA during emerging adulthood. Among emerging adults who reported PA, those with an adolescent profile of “active-unorganized”, “active-organized” and “highly active-variety” had higher PA levels than “non-participants” (all p<0.001).

Conclusions: Patterns of PA participation during adolescence represent strong predictors of PA in emerging adulthood.

Practical implications: Promoting maintenance of any type of PA during adolescence is key to preventing low PA among emerging adults.