Less than 40 percent of young New Zealand adults (18 to 24-year-olds) are meeting the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for physical activity, a new study has found.
The WHO guidelines recommend adults do at least 2.5 hours a week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity as well as muscle-strengthening activity on at least two days each week.
Victoria University of Wellington associate professor in physical activity and wellbeing. Justin Roberts said that research conducted for a recent survey suggested that only 37 percent of young adults are meeting both recommendations.
The study found significant differences in physical activity based on gender, with young men more likely to meet the WHO’s recommendations than young women. It also found women’s participation in physical activity was associated with ethnicity, employment and socioeconomic status.
“Women living in the most deprived areas were 32 percent less likely to meet the recommendations compared with women in the least deprived areas. In contrast, there were no differences among men based on socio-economic status,” Associate Professor Richards said.
Young women surveyed who were not in full-time work and those from Asian and Pacific communities were also less likely to meet the recommendations.
Co-author of the study, Dr Oliver Wilson, a lecturer in physical activity and wellbeing at Victoria University of Wellington, said the findings indicate many young adults are not doing enough physical activity to benefit their health.
“Taking part in physical activity has important long-term health and wellbeing implications, including reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and poor mental health. Physical activity generally declines over a person’s lifetime, and young adults tend to over-report how much activity they do, so our findings raise public health concerns,” Dr Wilson said.
Dr Wilson also said the results also suggest a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to promoting physical activity among young adults would be short-sighted, given the differences identified between different groups. He also added that effective promotion of physical activity has to be tailored to the needs of these groups.
The study was based on data from Sport New Zealand surveys carried out between January 2017 and December 2019. Responses from 4,190 adults aged 18 to 24 were used to assess the proportion of young people meeting the WHO’s recommendations for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity.
