Can Sports Practice in Childhood and Adolescence Be Associated with Higher Intensities of Physical Activity in Adult Life? A Retrospective Study in Community-Dwelling Adults

Introduction: Investigating the determinants of physical activity (PA) is an important strategy for the promotion of healthy lifestyles, mainly with PA of a moderate-to-vigorous intensity, which provides several health benefits in adulthood. In this sense, it is not clear whether early sports practice (ESP) during childhood and adolescence could be associated with the habitual practice of PA of higher intensities in adulthood. Objective: This study aimed to analyze the association of ESP in childhood and adolescence with different intensities of habitual PA in adulthood. Methods: A sample of 264 community-dwelling adults were randomly selected (42.2 +/- 17.0 years, 57.5% of women). ESP during childhood and adolescence was evaluated using retrospective questions. Weekly minutes of PA were assessed using accelerometry and classified according to intensity as light, moderate, moderate-to-vigorous, vigorous and very vigorous. The association of ESP with a high level of PA (above median) in each intensity was analyzed using binary regression models. Results: The prevalence of ESP was 42.8% in childhood and 49.2% in adolescence. ESP in childhood was associated with a high level of very vigorous (OR: 2.48, p < 0.001) and vigorous PA (OR: 2.91, p < 0.001) in adulthood, but lost significance after adjustments by sex and age. ESP in adolescence was associated with a high level of very vigorous PA (OR: 1.99, p = 0.013) in the crude model and vigorous PA (OR: 2.21, p = 0.006), even after adjustments by age, sex and socioeconomic status. Conclusions: Engagement in sports practice during adolescence was associated with high levels of vigorous PA in adulthood and is an important period for healthy lifestyle promotion.