The Association of Regular Exercise with Violence Related Behaviors in Urban Adolescents

Objective: Is regular exercise in urban adolescents associated with decreased violence related behaviors. Methods: Cross-sectional secondary analysis of a New York City public high school survey. The exercise exposure variables identified were: Exercise frequency, # sit-ups, longest run, playing on a sports team. The violence related behavior outcome variables were: Not carrying a weapon, not being in a physical fight, not being in a gang. Logistic regression analysis was used to generate odds ratios between primary exposure and outcome variables. Results: Females reporting higher exercise frequency had increased odds of not being in gang (2.9[1.6-5.2]). Females doing > 20sit-ups had increased odds of not carrying weapon (2.6[1.4-4.8]) and of not being in gang (2.5[1.4-4.6]). Females reporting running > 20 minutes had increased odds of not carrying weapon (2.4[1.2-4.9]) and of not being in gang (2.3[1.2-4.6]). Females reporting being on a team had increased odds of not carrying weapon (2.0[1.1-3.6]), not being in fight (1.95[1.4-2.7]) and not being in gang (2.6[1.5-4.4]). Males reporting being on a team and higher exercise frequency had increased odds of not being in a fight (1.7[1.2-2.4]) and (1.5[1.1-2.0]). Conclusions: Higher exercise frequency and intensity was associated with decreased violence related behaviors in females and only protective against fighting in males.