Introduction: The purpose of this analysis was to

Methods: We analyzed 20 953 adults from the 2006 Aboriginal Peoples Survey. Those with self-reported physician-diagnosed asthma and a current prescription for asthma medication were considered to have current asthma. Insufficient physical activity was defined as < 3 hours/week of moderate to vigorous physical activity; high television screen time was defined as > 10 hours/week. Health care use was assessed using the number of health professional visits and overnight hospital stays.

Results: Aboriginal adults with asthma were more likely to report high television-viewing time ( OR = 1.16; CI : 1.11-1.22) and insufficient physical activity ( OR = 1.15; CI : 1.10-1.20) than those without asthma. Those with asthma who reported high television-viewing time reported more health professional consults in the past 12 months ( OR = 2.59; CI : 2.34-2.87), more overnight stays in hospital in the past year ( OR = 1.95; CI : 1.82-2.08) and more overnight stays in the hospital in the past 5 years ( OR = 1.13; CI : 1.07-1.18); results were less consistent for physical activity and health care use.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that Aboriginal adults with asthma are less active than their peers without asthma and that such a lifestyle may be associated with higher health care use. These findings have implications for physical activity promotion and sedentary behaviour strategies targeting Aboriginal adults with asthma.