Plucky Pensioners outpace Teens
Britain's
pensioners now lead more physically active lives than Britain's
teenagers, according to research released today.
The
research, commissioned by 91热爆 News and performed by Dr Kimberly
Fisher of the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER)
at the University of Essex, shows that on the average day, Britons
aged 8 to 19 years spent 1 hour and 15 minutes doing physical activity,
while Britons aged 65 or over tended to be active for 1 hour and
40 minutes.
Almost
a quarter of the 8 to 19 year olds did no physical activity lasting
more than five minutes on an average day.
Young
people are more active on days when they are not in school, but
even on these days, teenage boys are only as active as older men,
and teenage girls are still less active than older women.
The
study is based on an official Government survey of 11,667 people,
who kept detailed diaries of their activities over two days.
Dr
Fisher said: "We can't necessarily blame teenagers for being
inactive; parents are often too worried about their safety to let
them make journeys on foot or by bike, and insist on ferrying them
around by car; and town planners have often disregarded the needs
of the young in allocating recreational space."
The
study also found that it's not just teenagers who are leading sedentary
lives. On any given day, 18 per cent of Britons do no physical activity
that lasts more than five consecutive minutes.
Those
taking part were asked if they had participated in any of 43 sports
in the last four weeks. Over half of Britons said they played some
sports on at least a monthly basis.
Nevertheless,
42 per cent indicated that they had not participated in any sport
- not even keep-fit exercises - over the past four weeks.
Other
key findings include:
路
People who say they almost always feel rushed are still more likely
to participate in sports or keep fit exercise than people who say
they seldom or never feel time pressured;
路 People who have access to the internet at home are more
likely to participate in sports than those who do not have internet
access at home. The association holds across the age groups, and
is particularly strong for people in the older working age groups;
路 Though boys are more physically active than girls, after
the age of 20, women tend to be more physically active than men.
At all ages, men spend more time than women playing sports, but
women spend more time than men walking, cycling and doing physically
active housework as adults.
Notes
for Editors
If
any of this material is used it must be credited as 91热爆 News commissioned
research performed by Dr Kimberly Fisher of the Institute for Social
and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex.
Dr
Kimberly Fisher examined data from the National Survey of Time Use
conducted by the Office for National Statistics which was released
earlier this year.
The
survey is based on a random national sample of around 5,000 households.
All
people aged 8 and over in these households were asked to keep a
diary of their activities over two randomly selected days, one week
day and one weekend day.
Physical
activities included: sports and exercise; walking dogs; physically
active housework (such as vacuuming, moving furniture and many forms
of DIY); productive exercise (such as turning soil in an allotment
by hand or picking berries); and travel on foot or bicycle.
The
diary data only shows the time which people are active, but not
the intensity of exercise or the number of calories people burn
while doing exercise.
Even
so, young people naturally have more potential energy to spend than
pensioners. Young people who lead a sedentary lifestyle face greater
risks of obesity and health problems in later life.
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