Venu Menon
Wellington,May25,2023
Young Kiwi adults are not physically active enough in the eyes of the World Health Organisation (WHO), a recent study has found.
The study, conducted by Victoria University of Wellington, says less than 40% of young adults aged between 18 to 24 are meeting WHO recommendations for physical activity to reap the health and wellbeing benefits.
The WHO guidelines recommend adults do a minimum of two-and-a-half hours a week of “moderate intensity aerobic activity as well as muscle strengthening activity” at least twice a week.
“Our research suggests just 37 % of young adults are meeting both these recommendations,” says Justin Richards, associate professor (physical activity and wellbeing) at Victoria University and study co-author.
The study points to gender disparity in relation to physical activity, with young men more likely to meet the WHO’s recommendations than young women.
Ethnicity has a bearing in women’s participation in physical activity with women from Asian and Pasifika communities less likely to meet the WHO recommendations, the study notes.
Employment and socio-economic status also determine how many women engage in physical activity.
“Women living in the most deprived areas were 32 % less likely to meet the [WHO] 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 says.
Young women who are not employed full-time are less likely to meet the recommendations, the study finds.
The findings suggest young adults not adequately engaged in physical activity are putting their long-term health and wellbeing at risk.
“Taking part in physical activity has important long-term health and wellbeing implications, including reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and poor mental health,” co-author Dr Oliver Wilson says.
A lecturer in physical activity and wellbeing at Victoria University of Wellington, Dr Wilson notes physical activity generally declines over a person’s lifetime, and young adults “tend to over-report how much activity they do.”
The study findings raise public concerns, according to Dr Wilson.
He says a one-size-fits-all approach to promoting physical activity among young adults would be “short-sighted, given the differences identified between different groups.”
“Effective promotion of physical activity has to be tailored to the needs of these groups,” Dr Wilson adds.
The study relies on data from surveys conducted by Sport New Zealand between January 2017 and December 2019.
The WHO recommendations were tested against 4,190 respondents aged 18 to 24 for both aerobic and muscle strengthening activity.
Researchers from Auckland University, the Auckland University of Technology, and the University of Otago also contributed to the study.
The study examines the “socio-demographic differences in physical activity (aerobic and muscle-strengthening) among young adults (18-24 years).”
The data from the Sport New Zealand surveys was analysed to “determine the odds of participants meeting aerobic, muscle -strengthening and combined physical activity recommendations.”
The analysis included variables such as gender, ethnicity, employment/student status, disability status, and socio-economic deprivation.
The study results show outcomes varied according to the physical activity type that young adults engaged in. For example, 63.2 % did aerobic activity, while 40.1 % did strength building.
Young adults who worked full-time fared better than students or those who were unemployed.
Gender was a key determinant of physical activity levels, with women having lower odds of meeting WHO standards as compared to men.
The odds were lower for women from Asian and Pasifika communities, whereas the odds were even in the case of Pasifika and European men.
The odds were lower still for ethnic women in high deprivation areas.
The study concludes that the promotion of physical activity among young adults in New Zealand should factor in employment, gender, ethnicity and deprivation.
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
