ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
This article is part of the Research TopicSports, Nutrition and Public Health: Analyzing their Interconnected ImpactsView all 36 articles
Associations between Domain-Specific Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour, and Binge Drinking among Adults in the United States and China: Evidence from a Cross-sectional Study, Daily Tracking, and Randomised Controlled Trial
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai City, China
- 2Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
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Background: Binge drinking is linked to a range of diseases and has become a global public health concern. Engaging in physical activity may help reduce the prevalence of binge drinking and excessive alcohol consumption. However, the association may vary depending on the type of physical activity.This study aimed to investigate the association between different types of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and binge drinking. Materials and Methods: This study included : 1) A cross-sectional survey included 6,707 individuals aged 20 years and older from the NHANES database between 2015-2018 (3,473 men and 3,234 women). Physical activity was assessed using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire, and binge drinking was assessed using the Alcohol Use Questionnaire (ALQ). Binary logistic regression analysis was performed. 2) Daily tracking surveys collected daily data on the duration of physical activity and alcohol consumption over eight consecutive days from 80 individuals, resulting in 640 valid self-reported data points, which were analysed using a generalised linear mixed-effects model. 3) A randomised controlled trial included 40 participants, randomly divided into a control group (20 individuals) and an experimental group (20 individuals). The experimental group engaged in 4 weeks (28 days)of group square dance recreational physical activity, while the control group had no assigned tasks. Paired-sample t-tests and independent-sample t-tests were used for analysis. Results: A cross-sectional survey revealed work physical activity was positively associated with binge drinking (p<0.001;OR= 1.50;95%CI:1.30–1.75). Transportation physical activity was positive associated with binge drinking (p= 0.002;OR=1.30;95%CI:1.10–1.53). In contrast, recreational physical activity was negatively associated with binge drinking (p<0.001;OR=0.68;95%CI:0.58–0.79). Daily tracking surveys have externally validated the association between work-related physical activity and alcohol abuse (β=0.002,p<0.001). The association between transportation physical activity and alcohol abuse (β=0.014,p<0.001). A randomised controlled trial strengthened the association between recreational physical activity and alcohol abuse, showing that an association between increased recreational physical activities and reduced alcohol abuse. (p<0.001). Conclusion: Different types of physical activity are associated with different patterns of binge drinking. Therefore, when using physical activity as a measure to control binge drinking, it is necessary to pay attention to the type and duration of physical activity.
Keywords: binge drinking, Work physical activity, Transportation physical activity, Recreational physical activity, Sedentary behaviour
Received: 15 Sep 2025; Accepted: 07 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Chiwei and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiaoling Zhang, zhangxiaoling@sus.edu.cn
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