The Push Play campaign and the New Zealand Physical Activity Guidelines Movement=Health: Guidelines for Promoting Physical Activity (Hillary Commission, 2001) recommend that adults do at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity, on most, if not all days of the week. Most days, is a minimum of 5 days per week. This recommendation is based on the findings of the US Surgeon-General’s report Physical Activity and Health (1996) that 30 minutes moderate intensity physical activity, on most days of the week is enough to maintain health and reduce the risk of some health conditions.
In addition to finding out about the total time adults are active per week we want to know how regularly active they are. To find this out, we have developed a CPI (Couch Potato Index) which measures the number of days in the last week that adults participate in a sport or active leisure for 30 minutes or more, which tells us the proportion of adults who meet the physical activity guidelines (that is those who do at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity 5 days or more).
Note: Not all differences shown in the figure are significant, as some sample sizes are relatively small. See text for commentary.
Overall trends
- Overall, more adults are not active on any days of the week in 2001 (19.3%) than in 1997 (16.6%), with most of this change occurring between 1997 and 1999. It is reflected in small decreases in the proportions that are active on 1-4 days and on five or more days a week.
- Both men and women have shown small but significant increases in the proportions of each that have not been active on any days, between 1997 and 2001. Over this period, the proportion of men that have not been active has increased from 16.9% to 19.9%, and from 16.3% to 18.8% for women.
- Among different age groups, 50-64 year olds in particular have shown a significant increase in the proportion that has not been active on any days, from 14.3% to 18.9% between 1997 and 2001; 35-49 year olds, on the other hand, peaked in the proportions of those who are not active at 22.6% in 1999, up significantly from 16.7% in 1997 before declining again to 17.9% in 2001.
- Other significant changes have included a reduction in the proportion of those active for five or more days among 25-34 year olds, from 37.2% to 31.0%, over this period.
- On the other hand, among those aged 65 years or over there has been a significant increase in the proportion who are active on five or more days, from 46.3% to 51.9% since 1999, reflected largely in a decline in those who are active on 1-4 days from 35.3% to 29.2% since 1997.
Ethnic groups
- There have been significant changes in the numbers of days people are active for all ethnic groups other than Maori.
- Among Europeans, the proportion that has not been active has increased from 15.4% in 1997 to 17.5% in 2001, while the proportion that is active for 1-4 days per week has declined from 44.9% to 41.6% over this same period.
- Pacific adults are less likely to be active on five or more days in 2001 than in 1997, reducing from 39.9% to 28.0%, and are far more likely to be active on 1-4 days (increasing from 37.6% to 54.5% over this period).
- Adults from Other ethnic groups are also less likely to be active on five or more days, declining from 39.7% in 1997 to 17.4% in 2001, with a significant increase in those that have not been active from 19.5% to 37.1% over the same period.