PLoS ONE (Jan 2011)

Socio-demographic patterning of physical activity across migrant groups in India: results from the Indian Migration Study.

  • Ruth Sullivan,
  • Sanjay Kinra,
  • Ulf Ekelund,
  • A V Bharathi,
  • Mario Vaz,
  • Anura Kurpad,
  • Tim Collier,
  • Kolli Srinath Reddy,
  • Dorairaj Prabhakaran,
  • Yoav Ben-Shlomo,
  • George Davey Smith,
  • Shah Ebrahim,
  • Hannah Kuper

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0024898
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 10
p. e24898

Abstract

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ObjectiveTo investigate the relationship between rural to urban migration and physical activity (PA) in India.Methods6,447 (42% women) participants comprising 2077 rural, 2,094 migrants and 2,276 urban were recruited. Total activity (MET hr/day), activity intensity (min/day), PA Level (PAL) television viewing and sleeping (min/day) were estimated and associations with migrant status examined, adjusting for the sib-pair design, age, site, occupation, education, and socio-economic position (SEP).ResultsTotal activity was highest in rural men whereas migrant and urban men had broadly similar activity levels (pConclusionOur findings suggest that migrants have already acquired PA levels that closely resemble long-term urban residents. Effective public health interventions to increase PA are needed.