Physical activity trends in Queensland - Wiley Online Library

Physical activityPhysical activity trends in Queenslandpossible that, in relation to delivering health information, men are alot harder to reach as compared to women; this might be illustratedby the fact that women in many intervention trials have largelyoutnumbered men. 29 The gender differences in physical activitytrends observed in this study indicate that it might be needed totarget men and women differently in health promotion messages.Further research should indicate whether it is needed to re-evaluatehealth promotion practices and messages aimed at men.No shifts in the proportions of different activity types wereobserved over time (Figure 1), hence the trend of increasingphysical activity was equal across different types of physicalactivity. This was contrary to what Merom et al. and Chau et al.reported, who observed that an increase in total physical activitywas mainly due to an increase in walking. 10,12 However, anotherobservation by Merom et al. was similar to a finding of thisstudy: a decreasing trend in the participants who only walk andan increasing trend for participants who walk in combination withother activities (Table 2). 12 Figure 1 further illustrates that walking,which has been shown to be amendable to change even amongthe least active socio-demographic groups, 21 has the potential toreduce disparities in physical activity, which has been argued byother several investigators as well. 12,30,31 Not only does it show thatwalking is the most important form of activity for all demographicsubgroups, it is even more so for women, older people, peoplewith a low education or low income and high BMI. These findingsare in line with observations in other studies, as are the higherproportions of vigorous physical activity seen in men, younger, ofnormal weight, of higher income, of higher education and regionaltown participants. 31,32It could be argued that people with a lower education might havehad a lower exposure to the physical activity messages in the pastand are now catching up, 33 which might explain why the significantincreasing trend in achieving sufficient activity levels was seen inpeople with a lower education only. Similar outcomes have beenobserved in knowledge related physical activity interventions thatwere more effective for lower educated participants as comparedto higher educated participants. 34,35 Decreasing physical activitylevels have commonly been associated with increasing BMIlevels, 25,36 however this does not explain why an increasing trendfor physical activity was only seen in people with a normalweight and not in overweight or obese participants. It is also notcomparable with data from New South Wales where the physicalactivity trends across BMI groups were more or less equal. 7,10,12Although other studies often report more sufficient physicalactivity in more urbanised populations, 37-39 this was not confirmedin this study or in other Queensland studies, 40 where equal levelsof physical activity were observed for both regional town and ruralparticipants. The most likely explanation is that participants livingin a ‘regional town’ in Australia are not urbanised enough to makethe difference with rural participants apparent.The strengths of this study are the large number of participantsand the use of a common research protocol across all waves ofdata collection. This has produced consistent outcomes, whichare comparable for each survey year. On the other hand, socialdesirability may have induced over-reporting when using selfreportingCATI measures. However, although over-reportingmay have been present, social desirability can not explain theobserved increasing trends in physical activity, as it will have beena confounder equally present at all assessment points. Further,participants were contacted via land lines only, not mobile phones;hence the group of younger participants might not have beenentirely representative, as more and more young people are nolonger contactable using conventional land lines. 41 Finally, ActiveAustralia Survey protocols do not allow to determine wether theminimum of five activity sessions (which are needed in order tobe ‘sufficiently active’) were performed on five separate days orless; 8 this is a methodological limitation as the Australian activityguidelines state that the minimum level of activity should beachieved on at least five separate days. 5In conclusion, although an increasing trend for sufficientphysical activity was observed, overall physical activity levelsin Central Queensland remain low and more efforts to increasephysical activity are needed. The gender differences in physicalactivity trends indicate that it might be needed to target men andwomen differently in health promotion messages. Rigorous andcontinuous monitoring of population levels of physical activityin Australia, which allow both state specific and internationalcomparisons, is needed. This will provide a stronger rationale andmore guidance (what works and what does not) for Commonwealthand State Governments as they attempt to create or maintain goodhealth for all Australians.AcknowledgementsVandelanotte is supported by a National Health and MedicalResearch Council of Australia (#519778) and National HeartFoundation of Australia (#PH 07B 3303) post-doctoral researchfellowship. The Central Queensland Social Survey is funded by theInstitute for Health and Social Science Research and conducted bythe Population Research Laboratory at CQ University Australia.References1. Pate RR, Pratt M, Blair SN, Haskell WL, et al. Physical-Activity andPublic-Health − a Recommendation from the Centers-for-Disease-Controland-Preventionand the American-College-of-Sports-Medicine. JAMA.1995;273(5):402-7.2. US Department of Health and Human Services. Physical Activity and Health.A report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta (GA): Centres for Disease Controland Prevention, National Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and HealthPromotion; 1996.3. Mathers CD, Vos ET, Stevenson CE, Begg SJ. The burden of disease and injuryin Australia. Bull World Health Organ. 2001;79(11):1076-84.4. Stephenson J, Bauman A, Amstrong T, Smith B, et al. The Cost of IllnessAttributable to Physical Inactivity. Canberra (AUST): CommonwealthDepartment of Health and Aged Care; 2000.5. Department of Health and Ageing. National Physical Activity Guidelines forAustralians. Canberra (AUST): Commonwealth of Australia; 1999.6. Macera CA, Pratt M. Public health surveillance of physical activity. Res QExerc Sport. 2000;71 Suppl 2:97-103.7. Merom D, Phongsavan P, Chey T, Bauman A. Long-term changes in leisuretime walking, moderate and vigorous exercise: Were they influenced by thenational physical activity guidelines? J Sci Med Sport. 2006;9(3):199-208.8. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. The Active Australia Survey: A Guideand Manual for Implementation, Analysis and Reporting. Canberra (AUST):AIWH; 2003.2010 vol. 34 no. 3 AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH 253© 2010 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2010 Public Health Association of Australia