Mobile Phone Use and its Association With Sitting Time and Meeting Physical Activity Recommendations in a Mexican American Cohort

BACKGROUND: The benefits of physical activity (PA) are well-documented. Mobile phones influence PA by promoting screen-based sedentary time, providing prompts or reminders to be active, aiding in tracking and monitoring PA, or providing entertainment during PA. It is not known how mobile phone use is associated with PA and sitting time in Mexican Americans, and how mobile phone users may differ from nonusers. OBJECTIVE: To determine the associations between mobile phone use, PA, and sitting time and how these behaviors differ from mobile phone nonusers in a sample of 2982 Mexican-American adults from the Mano a Mano cohort. METHODS: Differences in meeting PA recommendations and sitting time between mobile phone users and nonusers were examined using chi-square and analysis of variance tests. Logistic regression was used to examine associations between mobile phone use, PA, and sitting. RESULTS: Mobile phone users were more likely to be obese by body mass index criteria (≥30 kg/m(2)), younger, born in the United States and lived there longer, more educated, and sit more hours per day but more likely to meet PA recommendations than nonusers. Males (odds ratio [OR] 1.42, 95% CI 1.16-1.74), use of text messaging (OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.03-1.56), and having a higher acculturation score (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.07-1.52) were associated with higher odds of meeting PA recommendations. Sitting more hours per day was associated with being male, obese, born in the United States, a former alcohol drinker, and having at least a high school education. Among nonusers, being born in the United States was associated with higher odds of more sitting time, and being married was associated with higher odds of meeting PA recommendations. CONCLUSIONS: Mobile phone interventions using text messages could be tailored to promote PA in less acculturated and female Mexican American mobile phone users.