Research Impact: There has been much debate about the cost to take part in out of school physical activity among adolescents. In this paper, the research team including Kwok Ng, examined the associations between family affluence and out of school vigorous physical activity across countries in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study in 2005/6 through to 2013/14. In addition, the trending patterns of each country were examined to consider the environmental aspects for physical activity. The results were not entirely consistent, whereby adolescents in some countries with Low family affluence took part in more vigorous physical activity. What was clear was that, when countries were combined, 15 year old boys and girls with high family affluence increased levels of vigorous physical activity between 2006 and 2014. In Ireland there were not changes between 2006 and 2014 for adolescents with low, medium and high FAS, however there was an increasing proportion of adolescents who took part in vigorous physical activity when FAS groups were compared between low, medium and high. Therefore, the hypothesis whereby adolescents with more affluent families were taking part in more levels of out of school vigorous physical activity. These findings confirm the need to reduce the social inequalities for increasing physical activity levels, especially for out of school vigorous physical activity.
Sigmundová, D., Sigmund, E., Tesler, R., Ng, K.W., Hamrik, Z., Mathisen, F.K.S., Inchley, J. and Bucksch, J., Vigorous physical activity in relation to family affluence: time trends in Europe and North America. International Journal of Public Health, pp.1-10. DOI: 10.1007/s00038-019-01271-8
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