Original paperLong-term changes in leisure time walking, moderate and vigorous exercise: Were they influenced by the national physical activity guidelines?
Section snippets
Background
Physical inactivity is recognised as one of the most important risk factors for reducing the burden of chronic disease and healthcare costs in Australia and therefore an important behaviour to modify and monitor.1, 2 Population surveillance of activity levels is an effective way to assess change over time, to identify high-risk groups and to assess progress towards meeting public health guidelines. In this respect, physical activity recommendations provide an essential tool for guiding public
Methods
Access to the NHS data was obtained through the ABS confidential unit records files (CURFs) provided on compact disks (CD-ROM) and through the remote access data laboratory (RADL), which provides higher level of variable details. The University of New South Wales Ethics Committee approved the project.
The NHS is a series of cross-sectional surveys designed to obtain representative and national benchmark information on a range of health-related issues and to enable monitoring of trends in risk
Results
Table 1 presents the prevalence of any walking in the past 2 weeks by population subgroups and survey year. From 1989 to 2000, the prevalence of walking increased by 8.5%. The prevalence of walking was consistently higher among females than males for all surveys, but the change in prevalence over the years was of similar magnitude. The test for trend indicated significant changes in the prevalence of walking in most population subgroups, with the exception of older aged adults (>60 years),
Discussion
Using the 1989 NHS as a baseline, a noticeable trend of increase in walking for exercise in most population subgroups as well as an increase in moderate-intensity exercise across all population subgroups resulted in more adults exercising. This in turn was translated to a statistically significant and substantial reduction in the proportion of Australians who are at the highest risk category (not doing any LTPA), from 36 in 1989 to 30% in 2000. This favourable change has important public health
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