New report -
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I haven't read it all
Not sure how many people will get past "Summary of the main findings" (the bit in bold has been highlighted by me)
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The public’s interpretation of the current guidelines for physical activity
The guidelines presented a much broader picture of what constituted physical activity compared with the relatively narrow understanding of many participants. A conceptual gap emerged between the portrayal in the guidelines of physical activity as involving both structured activities and informal, everyday actions, and the general public concept of physical activity as being largely structured and organised. Overall, the public attached more credibility to ‘structured’ over ‘unstructured’ activities in terms of their likelihood to produce health benefits. There was also a need to promote public appreciation of the potential physical activity opportunities
offered by informal contexts such as youth clubs and after-school clubs in primary schools.
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It might be due to the way this survey was conducted, but on the face of it people are discounting the way 'normal' things - like walking, cycling and running round the park - are beneficial and, perhaps, 'less healthy' than sport/games.
Arguably the Olympics could make this worse.
Clear case for more discussion of ActiveTravel - AND the policies that actually encourage and enable this. Obviously this report wasn't looking at travel/transport - that's a different department/box - this is on the healthscotland.com website ("Research commissioned by NHS Health Scotland to explore what motivates people to be regularly physically active in order to identify how best to communicate the guidelines set out in Start Active, Stay Active, in ways that will resonate with the public. This report focuses on the early years, children and young people, a sister report focuses on adults and older adults.")
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Carers of primary school age children described the influence of the school on the physical activity of their child outwith school time. An example was given in two of the focus groups of schools providing children with special badges if they had walked or cycled to school.
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A few groups of participants reported that celebrities (some not directly in the field of physical activity) had influenced their views on physical activity positively. Key amongst those highlighted were:
Jamie Oliver (female carer, pre-school, walking, rural)
music bands (females and males, 16–18 years, urban)
famous footballers (males, 11–15 years, rural)
Olympic cyclists (males, 16–18 years, urban).
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“Physical Activity” is defined in general terms as any movement of the body that uses energy.
Examples amongst pre-school children who are capable of walking include playground activities, playing in the garden or park, ball games, walking cycling, dancing and swim sessions.
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There is an interesting section -
4.1 Clarity of message
- which clearly shows that people are confused by 'activity messages'
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Whilst carers of children comprehended the messages in their respective guidelines with relative ease, young people considered that their factsheet contained many different types of information, bringing together time periods, frequencies, and levels/type of activity, which needed time to digest.
Questions were raised over whether the stipulated 60 minutes to several hours every day could be broken down into shorter time periods which accumulated to these overall durations. If so, young people wanted information on the minimum periods acceptable, with a prevailing view in one group (BME male, 13–18 years, urban) that half or quarter hour episodes of physical activity may not be of any health benefit.
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Carers of children of primary school age appeared to understand the messages in this factsheet more readily than young people but a few called for more examples of physical activity that meet the guidelines which they felt would illustrate more clearly what is meant by different intensity of activity. Further specification of what is meant by ‘playground activities’ was also requested, this term appearing particularly vague. Young people agreed that more examples of physical activity relevant to their age group would be useful in clarifying the differences in levels and type of activity.
An initial reaction by some participants in both the young people and carer groups was surprise that the guidelines differed from what they understood to be the current clear recommendation of one hour of physical activity a day for all.
Carers of under-fives not yet walking (rural location) also perceived the message to conflict with official information which they understood aimed to encourage them to get out for walks with their families, which meant transporting their infant in some form of baby carrier, thereby extending the time their infant spent ‘restrained’.
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