Socioeconomic, health, and dietary determinants of physical activity in a military occupational environment

Background: Health-related advantages of physical activity are well documented. The aim was to detect socioeconomic, health, and dietary determinants of physical activity. Methods: A cross-sectional design was used. Mailed questionnaires were sent to 5,000 Belgian military men. Dietary patterns were determined using the Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS). For physical activity, the validated International Physical Activity Questionnaire was used. Results: Participation rate was 37% (n = 1,852). Mean total metabolic equivalent task (MET-total) varied between 6,224 MET-minutes/week for the age category 20 to 29 years to 4,578 MET-minutes/week for the age category 50 to 59 years. About 58% of the participants had a body mass index (BMI) above 25.0 kg/m². Logistic regression indicated a strong relation between MDS and MET-vigorous. A BMI increase of 1 kg/m² was associated with an odds ratio of 0.95 (95% confidence interval: 0.93-0.98), meaning that each increase of 1 kg/m² decreased MET-vigorous with 5%. Each additional life year decreased MET-vigorous with 3%. Conclusions: The high level of physical activity and the physical activity promoting and facilitating occupational environment seem to be insufficient to prevent adiposity. Vigorous physical activity was most discriminative and negatively related with increasing BMI, age, and smoking and positively related with MDS.