Tuija Tammelin

R, completed a questionnaire including items about their musculoskeletal pains and participation in various sport and exercise activities (N = 6945). Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate how musculoskeletal pains are associated a) with participation in a certain type of sport or exercise activity and b) with the clusters formed by latent class analysis (LCA) according to the adolescents' profiles of participation in different sport and exercise activities. Results: Participation in certain sports showed some direct and inverse associations with musculoskeletal pains when adjusted for participation in other sports and for the amount of physical activity. However, after grouping the individuals into clusters by their participation in different sports, these associations vanished. Only the cluster characterized by boys' active participation in several sports (i.e., ice hockey, cycling, ice-skating, soccer, floorball, rinkball/bandy, swimming, roller-skating/skateboarding, Finnish baseball) had lower prevalence of neck pain compared with the physically inactive group. Conclusions: Physically active adolescents usually engage in several different sport and exercise activities, which make associations between single sports and musculoskeletal pains inconsequential in the general population of adolescents. Participation in several sports seemed to protect from harmful effects of a single risk sport. However, this finding cannot be generalized to adolescent elite athletes who are often involved in intense training for a single sport....

Methods: The study population consisted of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 including 7002 adolescents who responded to a postal inquiry in 2001-2002 at the age of 15-16 yr. They completed the Youth Self-Report questionnaire assessing their emotional and behavioral problems and a questionnaire concerning their moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA). The odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for having different emotional and behavioral problems were obtained in 2007 from logistic regression and adjusted for family type, income, parents' education, and body mass index. Results: In boys, physical inactivity (1 h or less of MVPA per week) was associated with anxious/depressed symptoms (OR = 2.9, 95% CI = 1.5-5.7), withdrawn/depressed symptoms (OR = 2.8, 95% CI = 1.8-4.2), social problems (OR = 3.6, 95% CI = 1.8-5.1), thought problems (OR = 2.3, 95% CI = 1.1-5.2), and attention problems (OR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.0-3.4) when compared to being physically active (4 h or more of MVPA per week). In girls, physical inactivity was associated with withdrawn/depressed symptoms (OR = 2.3, 95% CI = 1.5-3.6), somatic complaints (OR = 1.4, 95% CI = 1.0-1.9), social problems (OR = 3.2, 95% CI = 1.7-6.1), attention problems (OR = 2.1, 95% CI = 1.3-3.2), and rule-breaking behavior (OR = 1.8, 95% CI = 1.3-2.5) compared to being physically active. Conclusions: Physical inactivity was associated with several emotional and behavioral problems in adolescents. Future research should investigate the mechanisms behind these associations and the effectiveness of physical activity in the treatment of emotional and behavioral problems among young people....

To vigorous-intensity physical activity per day) and TV viewing (< 2 h·d−1) and to examine associations between physical activity and different sedentary behaviors. Methods: The study population consisted of 6928 boys and girls, members of the northern Finland birth cohort 1986 who, in 2001-2002, at age 15-16 yr, responded to a mailed questionnaire inquiring about their time spent in moderate to vigorous (MVPA), light (LPA), and commuting (CPA) physical activity, and different sedentary behaviors. Results: Fifty-nine percent of the boys and 50% of the girls reported 60 min or more of total physical activity per day. Only 23% of boys and 10% of girls reported 60 min of MVPA per day. Forty-eight percent of boys and 44% of girls reported more than 2 h of daily TV viewing. High amounts of TV viewing and computer use were associated with lower levels of physical activity in both genders. Conclusion: Many adolescents exceeded the recommended level of TV viewing and did not meet current recommendations for health-related physical activity. The inverse associations of physical activity with TV viewing and computer use suggest that measures aimed to reduce sedentary behaviors may, at least partly, increase physical activity among youth....

The aim of this article was to review the literature on the youth predictors of physical activity in adulthood. The outcome measure in the reviewed studies was the level and types of physical activity at adult age. The youth predictors here included different measures of physical activity, health and fitness as well as some social and behavioral variables measured in childhood or in adolescence. The goal was to identify the elements in youth that are associated with a high level of physical activity in adulthood. This information can be used by health promoters who plan physical activity programs for young people to enhance lifelong physical activity. This literature review is also addressed to researchers to provide ideas for further studies in this area.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate how a change in the level of leisure-time physical activity from adolescence into adulthood is associated with overall and abdominal obesity at the age of 31 y. DESIGN: Prospective follow-up study of Northern Finland birth cohort of 1966. SUBJECTS: In all, a population of 2834 males and 2872 females aged 31 y was studied. MEASUREMENTS: At the age of 31 y, overweight was defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 25.0–29.9 kg/m² and obesity as a BMI of 30.0 kg/m² or more. The cutoff points of waist circumference for mild and severe abdominal obesity were 94.0 and 102.0 cm in males and 80.0 and 88.0 cm in females. The change in the level of physical activity (at least moderately active vs inactive) was evaluated by inquiries conducted at the ages of 14 and 31 y. The odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) obtained from logistic regression were adjusted for maternal BMI before pregnancy, BMI at the age of 14 y, alcohol intake, occupational physical activity, smoking, and, in the case of females, for parity at age 31 y. RESULTS: Becoming inactive during the transition from adolescence to adulthood was associated with overall overweight in males (OR 1.49, CI 1.18–1.89), overall obesity in males (OR 1.53, CI 0.99–2.37) and females (OR 1.51, CI 0.94–2.44), and with severe abdominal obesity in females (OR 1.80, CI 1.13–2.86). Being persistently inactive from adolescence to adulthood was associated with mild abdominal obesity in males (OR 1.83, CI 1.13–2.95), but not with other obesity measures in either gender after adjustment for confounding factors. CONCLUSIONS: Becoming inactive during the transition from adolescence to adulthood is related to overall obesity in both genders, and to severe abdominal obesity in females at the age of 31 y. The results emphasize the role of continued physical activity from adolescence into adulthood in the prevention of adult obesity.