Prevalence of meeting youth physical activity guidelines across income, sex, urbanicity, and sport participation: 2022-2023 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH).

PURPOSE: This cross-sectional study used data from the 2022-2023 National Survey of Children's Health to examine the prevalence of American youth meeting physical activity (PA) guidelines by sociodemographic subgroups defined by income, sex, urbanicity, and sports participation. METHODS: Weighted prevalence statistics were computed for meeting PA guidelines (≥60 min/day) for groups defined by income (0%-199% or ≥200% of Federal Poverty Level), sex (male, female), urbanicity (urban, rural), and past year sports participation (yes, no). Equity plots were generated to visualize the prevalence of meeting guidelines across subgroups (ref: high socioeconomic status (SES), urban male sports participants). FINDINGS: The final analytic sample included 61,740 youth (Mage = 11.6 years [SD = 3.2], 51.2% male). About 45% were sports participants, 88% were urban-dwelling, and <20% met PA guidelines. Meeting guidelines prevalences ranged from 13.2% (95% CI: 11.6%-15.0%) among high SES, urban female non-sport participants to 31.1% (95% CI: 25.5%-37.4%) among low SES, rural male non-sport participants. All comparisons were significantly different (versus reference group) except low SES, urban male sport participants; high SES, rural male non-sport participants; and low SES, rural females. CONCLUSIONS: Most American youth fail to meet guidelines, with lowest prevalences among female non-sport participants, regardless of SES and urbanicity status. Sports may be more important for PA among urban versus rural youth. The findings, which show a complex interplay between sociodemographic factors, PA, and sport, can be used to identify populations needing targeted PA promotion programs.