12.08.13
Physical inactivity linked to local deprivation
80% of adults are failing to meet national targets for exercise, new research shows.
The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, at Bristol University, showed that the majority of adults were failing to take part in moderate exercise for 30 minutes 12 times a month.
Almost one in ten had not walked continuously for five minutes in the past four weeks, researchers found. The study used government data collected from 2006-11 to measure physical fitness against measures like income and ethnicity.
Socio-economic factors had a significant influence on physical fitness, with only 12% of adults with a degree found to be physically inactive. Those with no qualifications are three times as likely to take little or no exercise.
Areas with greater number of facilities and higher sport expenditure were more likely to have active residents, demonstrating the importance of investment in public health infrastructure.
Professor Carol Propper, one of the authors of the report, ‘The Socioeconomic Gradient in Physical Inactivity in England’, said: “Physical inactivity is the most important modifiable health behaviour for chronic disease, so knowing who is physically inactive is important for designing cost-effective policy interventions.
“These findings show physical inactivity in England has a large socioeconomic gradient, with clear evidence of independent disparities by gender, ethnic group, age, geographic area and socioeconomic position.”
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