A Critical Analysis On National Surveillances On Physical Activity And Sedentary Behavior Among Chinese Adults

PURPOSE: Based on the importance of national physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) surveillance in health promotion, and no comprehensive review for national surveillance on PA and SB among Chinese adults. Therefore, this review aimed to comprehensively assess and summarise the studies on PA and SB surveillance among Chinese adult populations. METHODS: 10 national physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) surveillance surveys were included in this review, and EBSCO, PubMed, ScienceDirect and Web of Science were used to conduct a literature search in August 2021. The information regarding the first author, published year, project, study design, sample characteristics, PA and SB measures, the definition of PA and SB level in each study, and PA and SB level were independently extracted. Six items adapted from the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement and evaluation of the quality of prognosis studies in systematic reviews (QUIPS) were used to assess the quality of included studies. RESULTS: Finally, 5 national surveillance projects, including the Chinese Nutrition and Health Survey, International Collaborative Study of Cardiovascular Disease in Asia, the World Health Survey (2002-2003), Chinese National Health Services Survey and National Physical Fitness Surveillance were included. And 9 studies were retrieved from 5617 references. The published years ranged from 2005 to 2020. All the studies applied self-reported questionnaires to estimate the levels of PA and SB. Accordingly, a relatively lower level of PA among Chinese adults in this study. Besides, males were physically active than females. The levels of PA in urban regions are higher than those were in rural regions. Moreover, various cutoffs of sufficient PA and limited SB were used, and some studies did not use the well-recognized cutoffs. CONCLUSION: A few included studies would be a barrier for researchers inform effective policy or design efficient interventions aiming at increasing PA and decreasing SB. Moreover, considering the complexity of social, economic, and geographic disparities in China, estimating the overall PA and SB at various sociodemographic levels is needed. Although overall levels of PA and SB were collected, some key components of PA or SB are omitted.