Objective: To develop a method of categorizing patterns of physical activity by describing the frequency, intensity, and duration of women's activities.
Design: A 24-cell quota sample stratified by four occupations, two races, and three age groups.
Setting: Ten employment sites.
Participants: One hundred seventy-six women, ages 35-65 years, who worked 20 or more hours per week at their job, were not currently using hormone replacement therapy, not pregnant, and did not have a hysterectomy before the age of 53.
Main outcome measures: An interviewer and self-administered, retrospective occupational, household, and leisure physical activity questionnaire covering the previous 12 months and lifelong activity.
Results: Five patterns of household and leisure physical activity were identified: vigorous, continuous, cumulative, occasional, and inactive. Participation in the vigorous pattern was low, but 34% followed a continuous pattern of leisure activity and 75% followed a continuous pattern of household activity. The number of weekly work hours did not affect the household or leisure pattern.
Conclusion: Women may be able to obtain the recommended levels of physical activity from a combination of occupational, household, and leisure activities. Nursing recommendations should guide women to increase their regular leisure physical activity and/or accumulate sessions of moderate-intensity activity by aerobically enhancing daily activities in which they already participate.