| Chronic lifestyle disease now accounts for the vast majority of disease and premature mortality in the United States. Physical activity, lifestyle activity, and exercise are behaviors that are essential to maintaining a healthy body, regulating weight, enhancing psychological well-being, and preventing premature death. Research has consistently shown that regular activity is an important component for counteracting the obesity epidemic and in aiding weight loss and maintenance, yet millions of adults remain sedentary.;The purpose of this study employed secondary data from the 1998 and 2000 BFRSS to determine the relationship between healthy lifestyle characteristics (HLC), the single healthy lifestyle indicator (SHLI), and exercise. More specifically, this study addressed the relationship between HLC, SHLI, and exercise using a set of variables that included healthy weight, adequate fruit and vegetable intake, leisure time physical activity, nonsmoking behavior, exercise frequency, exercise intensity, exercise duration, exercise mode and a set of co-variates including age, gender, race, income, education, and general health.;The researcher hypothesized that exercise frequency, exercise intensity, exercise duration, and exercise mode would be related to U.S. adults participating in more HLC and having a higher SHLI score. A secondary data analysis was conducted on re-categorized data from the 1998 and 2000 Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS). Linear regression models were employed to determine the relationship between each of the four independent exercise variables and the index score associated with the four HLC. Logistic regression models were utilized to determine the relationship between each of the four independent exercise variables and the SHLI score.;Results of the study demonstrated that exercise frequency, exercise intensity, exercise duration, and exercise mode are significantly related to improved HLC and the SHLI. However, exercise frequency and exercise duration had the largest effect on U.S. adults' HLC and the SHLI. Exercise intensity and exercise mode had little effect on improving HLC and the SHLI. Furthermore, exercise frequency and exercise duration also had the largest effect on U.S. adults' SHLI, while exercise intensity and activity mode had little effect on U.S. adults' SHLI.;Findings from this study serve to illustrate that exercise frequency and exercise duration may be related to other HLC among U.S. adults. Although a specific type of activity did not have much effect on improving HLC, adults who chose to participate in any type of activity were more likely to have a greater number of HLC. Previous research demonstrates that HLC are related to a reduction of chronic disease and illness among U.S. adults. Therefore, primary prevention efforts should focus on increasing exercise frequency and exercise duration among U.S. adults to help reduce the prevalence of chronic disease risk factors at the population level. |
