Prevalence of self-reported physically active adults--United States, 2007.

The report, 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (2008 Guidelines), released in October by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides new guidelines for aerobic physical activity (i.e., activity that increases breathing and heart rate) and muscle strengthening physical activity. Under the 2008 Guidelines, the minimum recommended aerobic physical activity required to produce substantial health benefits in adults is 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity per week, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity. Recommendations for aerobic physical activity in the 2008 Guidelines differ from those used in Healthy People 2010 (HP2010) objectives, which call for adults to engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, 5 days per week, or 20 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity, 3 days per week. To establish baseline data for the 2008 Guidelines and compare the percentage of respondents who reported meeting these guidelines with the percentage who reported meeting HP2010 objectives, CDC analyzed data from the 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey. This report summarizes the results of that analysis, which indicated that, overall, 64.5% of respondents in 2007 reported meeting the 2008 Guidelines, and 48.8% of the same respondents reported meeting HP2010 objectives. Public health officials should be aware that, when applied to BRFSS data, the two sets of recommendations yield different results. Additional efforts are needed to further increase physical activity.