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 ( M age = 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.