The relationship between utilitarian walking, utilitarian cycling, and body mass index in a population based cohort...

To examine associations between utilitarian walking, utilitarian cycling, leisure time physical activity and body mass index (BMI).

Participants from the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) of Statistics Canada were interviewed by telephone every two years from 1994 to 2010. Analysis includes data from 6894 living participants aged 18-64years. Fixed effects and random intercepts models examined the association between BMI, utilitarian walking, and utilitarian cycling, controlling for behavioral and sociodemographic factors.

The final adjusted fixed effects models showed no significant relationship between utilitarian walking and BMI. In the unbalanced sample utilitarian cycling for 1 to 5h per week (b=-0.15, 95% CI: -0.28 to -0.02), and more than 5h per week (b=-0.22, 95% CI: -0.44 to 0.00) was significantly associated with BMI over time. In the fully balanced sample utilitarian cycling for 1 to 5h per week (b=-0.12, 95% CI: -0.27 to 0.03), more than 5h per week (b=-0.16, 95% CI: -0.45 to 0.13) was not significantly associated with BMI over time.

The results suggest that utilitarian walking is not related to BMI. The relationship between utilitarian cycling and BMI is less clear.