Time-use differences in 24-hour movement behaviours by sociodemographic and health- related factors among Japanese adults

Adults’ daily time spent in sedentary behaviour (SB), sleep, light-intensity physical activity (LPA), and moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) form the 24-hour movement behaviour composition, where more time in one behaviour means less time in others. Differences in daily time-use patterns across sociodemographic and health-related groups may drive health inequalities. This study examined these differences using compositional data analysis (CoDA) to inform tailored public health strategies. Using 2023 survey data from 2,718 Japanese adults aged 20–59, we applied compositional MANOVA to test variations across sociodemographic (sex, age, marital status, education, income, residential area, occupational type) and health-related factors (smoking, alcohol, BMI). Back-transformed log-ratio differences with 95% bootstrap confidence intervals were used for interpretation. Participants spent 29.5%, 33.6%, 0.6%, and 36.3% of their day in SB, sleep, MVPA, and LPA. Significant differences were found by sex, marital status, living arrangement, and occupation: unmarried, those living alone, and desk-based workers engaged in more SB and less LPA, while men and physically demanding workers had higher MVPA. Sleep showed minimal variation. This first CoDA study in Japanese working-age adults highlights the need for contextual strategies, such as reducing SB among desk-based workers and promoting MVPA among women and socially isolated groups.