Study finds need drives poor people to exercise
Posted on Monday, August 14, 2006
It’s long been assumed that people with less money and education, as well as members of certain ethnic groups, get far less exercise than those who are wealthier and more educated. A new study, however, suggests that the exercise gap is smaller than previously thought because of the day-to-day walking and biking people do when they don’t own cars, or have limited access to them.
In a study of more than 55, 000 Californians, researchers asked people about their leisure-time and non-leisure-time physical activity. This included such routine activities as walking to the bus stop or biking to a store.
When this type of activity was included the study found that many more people were considered active — particularly in lower income or less-educated groups.
Many past surveys have attempted to quantify exercise in various ethnic and socioeconomic groups, but those studies often examine only leisure-time exercise, says lead author David Berrigan, a biologist with the National Cancer Institute.
“To fully understand the contribution of physical activity to health and the obesity epidemic, we need to assess physical activity in the full range of areas: leisure, transportation, work and household activity,” he says.
The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that 48. 8 percent of white Californians met physical activity recommendations of at least 30 minutes of exercise at least five days a week, compared with 30. 6 percent of Hispanic Californians, when counting leisure-time activity alone.
But that difference shrank to 7 percent (56. 4 percent compared with 49. 5 percent ) when biking and walking for transportation were considered.
Likewise, when examining leisure activity alone, the study found that 51. 6 percent of people with incomes at least four times the poverty level met the recommendations compared with 26. 8 percent of those living below the poverty level. That gap narrowed to 11 percent (58. 5 percent versus 47. 5 percent ) when biking and walking for transportation were added to the mix.
The study also underscores the potential importance of walking and biking for transportation to help meet physical exercise goals, says Berrigan. It showed California is far from meeting physical activity recommendations. About 20 percent of those surveyed reported no activity.
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