Determination of physical activity level: Descriptive study

Determining the physical activity level of people from various age groups helps develop practices to reduce physical inactivity which is an important public health problem. This study aims to determine the physical activity level of adults aged between 18 and 64 using the "Measurement and Evaluation of Physical Activity Level Survey" prepared by the researchers. The participants' physical activity levels were categorized and evaluated based on the total Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET) and average daily step count. The study included a total of 301 voluntary participants aged between 18 and 64 with 212 women and 89 men. The survey contains a total of 28 questions, including personal information, daily activities, walking level, household chores and work-related activities. The content validity analysis of the survey was conducted with the Lawshe technique and was found suitable to determine the level of physical activity (Content Validity Index (CVI): 1). The average MET value of the participants was 2187.87 ± 1254.30. As a result, 6.6% of the participants were in the inactive category (<600 MET), 76.4% were in the less active category (600-3000 MET) and 16.9% were in the sufficiently active category (>3000 MET). There was a significant relationship between total MET value and age (p<0.05), body mass index (BMI) (p<0.05), chronic disease (p<0.05), education level (p<0.05), occupation (p<0.05), income level (p<0.05), physical activity level self-assessment (p<0.001), sitting duration (p<0.05), exercise habits (p<0.001), activity area (p<0.05), pedometer use(p<0.05), walking speed (p<0.001), work activity level (p<0.05), work activity type (p<0.001) and transportation method (p<0.05). However, there was no significant relationship between total MET value and gender, health status, sleep duration, and pet walking duration. Most of the participants (29.38%) were found to have a somewhat active step count (7500-9999). It was found that there was a significant relationship between the number of daily step count and gender (p<0.05), BMI (p<0.05), physical activity level self-assessment (p<0.001), exercise habits (p<0.05), activity area (p<0.05), walking speed (p<0.05) and transportation method (p<0.05). On the other hand, there was no significant relationship between daily step count and age, education level, health status, occupation, income level, sleep duration, sitting duration, pet walking duration, work activity, and type. With qualitative and quantitative questions featured on top of assessments of total MET value and daily step count, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of determining the physical activity level and contributes to future research.