RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Accessing physical activity among young adults attending a university: the role of sex, race/ethnicity, technology use, and sleep Samuel D. Towne Jr 1* , Marcia G. Ory 2 , Matthew Lee Smith 3,4 , S. Camille Peres 5 , Adam W. Pickens 5,2 , Ranjana K. Mehta 5,2 and Mark Benden 5 Abstract Background: Identifying factors associated with recommended physical activity (PA) levels are critical in efforts to combat the obesity epidemic and related comorbidities. Methods: We conducted cross-sectional analyses of college students (n = 490) enrolled in a large southern state university in October of 2014. Our aim was to identify sociodemographic characteristics, technology use, and sleep patterns among college students and their independent relationship to recommended PA. An online survey was sent to all enrolled students. Logistic regression predicted achieving recommended ≥150 min per week of moderate-vigorous PA (MVPA) versus not (≤149 min MVPA). Results: Approximately 69% of study participants were males, 18% were Hispanic, and more than half (60%) were within the normal body mass index (12% were obese). The average age of students was 21 years. On a daily average, individuals used smartphones most often (nearly 4.4 h), followed by laptops at 4.0 h, desktops at 1.2 h, and tablets at 0.6 h. The mean number of hours individuals reported sleeping was 6.7. Sociodemographic factors associated with reporting ≥150 min of MVPA included being male (OR = 4.0, 95% CI 2.2–7.1) versus female, being non-Hispanic White (OR = 1.8, CI 1.1–3.2) versus being a member of minority race group. Behavioral factors associated with reporting ≥150 min of MVPA included technology use (being moderate-heavy (OR = 2.3, CI 1. 1–4.8) or heavy (OR = 3.4, CI 1.6–7.5) users of technology), and receiving low-moderate (OR = 1.9, 1.01–3.7) levels of sleep versus the lowest level of sleep. Conclusions: In the current study, minority status and being female were the strongest sociodemographic factors associated with inadequate PA levels, while high technology use (primarily driven by smartphone use) were associated with recommended PA levels. Identifying factors associated with being physically active will allow for targeted interventions to improve the health of young adults. Keywords: Physical activity, Young adults, Sociodemographic, College students, Technology, Sleep * Correspondence: towne@sph.tamhsc.edu 1 Department of Health Promotion and Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, 1266 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-1266, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Towne et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:721 DOI 10.1186/s12889-017-4757-y