The epidemiology of walking for exercise: implications for promoting activity among sedentary groups.

The relative contribution of walking to overall leisure-time physical activity participation rates was studied among respondents from the 45 states that participated in the 1990 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (n = 81,557). The percentages of low income, unemployed, and obese persons who engaged in leisure-time physical activity (range = 51.1% to 57.7%) were substantially lower than the percentage among the total adult population...