• Preventive medicine · May 2016

    Perceptions of opportunities for physical activity in 28 European countries.

    • Filippos T Filippidis and Anthony A Laverty.
    • Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: f.filippidis@imperial.ac.uk.
    • Prev Med. 2016 May 1; 86: 136-40.

    IntroductionThis study examined the relationship between perceptions of opportunities for physical activity in the local area and physical activity levels in European adults.MethodsData for 20,673 adults aged 18-64 were taken from the representative Eurobarometer survey (wave 80.2, 2013) of 28 European Union (EU) countries. Achieving recommended levels of physical activity and Metabolic Equivalent of Task-minutes (MET-mins) per week was constructed from self-reports of frequency and duration of walking, moderate and vigorous physical activity. Relationships between these outcomes and perceptions of opportunities for physical activity in the local area were assessed using logistic and linear regressions as appropriate; trends in these perceptions were measured between 2002 and 2013.ResultsRespondents stating that their local area offers opportunities for physical activity were more likely to meet recommended levels of physical activity (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR]=1.56). Across all EU countries the percentage of people reporting that their local area offers these opportunities increased slightly between 2005 (71.4%) and 2013 (79.3%, p<0.001). Reporting that the local area offers opportunities for physical activity was associated with more moderate (17min/week) and vigorous (15min/week) physical activity and with 23 more minutes of walking per week.ConclusionPerceptions of opportunities for physical activity in the local area were associated with increased levels of all types of physical activity. Despite small improvements in perceptions of opportunities in the local area over the past decade, a variety of further interventions will be required to reduce the disease burden resulting from low physical activity levels.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…