Purpose: The present study examined the prevalence and associated determinants of physical activity levels among 7-11-year-olds in Wales, United Kingdom.   

Methods: This cross-sectional study of 354 schools was conducted in 2022/23 across Wales. In total, 32,606 students (aged 7-11-years) completed a survey. The self-report survey included questions addressing students’ time spent on physical activity, wider health behaviours such as nutrition and screen-time use and student demographics. School location, size and deprivation was also collected. A senior lead from each school has since been invited to complete a School Environment Questionnaire (SEQ) (currently in field). This survey captures data on the types of policies and practices being implemented by schools to support pupil health and wellbeing. Associations were studied using multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression analysis. 

Results: Of the 29,722 students answering the physical activity question, 7,775 (26.16%) reported daily physical activity. Reporting low levels of physical activity (i.e., less than daily) was found to be associated with being older (OR: 0.90, 95%CI: 0.83-0.98), identifying as a girl (OR: 0.57, 95%CI: 0.53-0.62 or other gender identity (OR: 0.71, 95%CI: 0.52-0.97) and low family affluence (OR: 1.14, 95%CI: 1.09-1.19). Low levels of physical activity were also found to be associated with schools located in urban areas (OR: 0.87, 95%CI: 0.78-0.98) but not with school size (OR: 1.00, 95%CI: 1.00-1.00). Higher levels of daily physical activity were associated with schools with lower affluence levels (OR: 1.08, 95%CI: 1.02-1.13). A significant interaction between family affluence and school affluence was found (OR: 0.95, 95%CI 0.91, 0.99), suggesting less affluent children were doing more daily exercise when attending less affluent schools than when attending more affluent schools. Regressions analyses performed with SEQ data will be presented at the symposium.  

Conclusions: Students attending schools located in urban areas were less likely to report daily levels of physical activity compared to students located in rural areas of Wales. These findings require further investigation into how school-level efforts might interplay with the wider school context when considering children’s physical activity levels.   

Purpose: The objective of this study was to demonstrate how physical inactivity should be studied not merely as a personal trouble, but as a social issue closely related to the social context of physically inactive individuals.  

Methods: This study was part of a larger study on physical inactivity in Denmark, including numerous methods for a deeper understanding. Methods used included; a) a narrative review of reviews (n=11) supplemented with expert interviews (n=4), b) 14 narrative interviews with previously physical inactive adults (who had become active within the last 6 months) and c) a survey among 1033 physical inactive Danes on motives and barriers for physical activity. The narrative review included reviews only using the PRISMA-Scr guidelines as a framework and was supplemented with 4 expert interviews with vast knowledge on physical inactivity in Denmark. The 14 narrative interviews were built as semi-structured interviews using the lifeline method to provide deeper insight into important life events. The survey was built on a large-scale Danish measurement the “How are you feeling” by the Danish Health Authorities and validated questionnaires (BREQ-3 & TILS). To include physically inactive respondents only, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire short form (IPAQ-SF) was used. The responses were analysed descriptively to provide insight into motives and barriers for physically inactive Danes. 

Results: Merging the data from survey, review, and expert interviews, has helped built a socioecological model of important determinants for physical activity in adult life. This model illustrates the vast array of determinants at multiple levels of influence that affects the individual. Based on this initial work we analysed the narrative interviews to build three narratives typologies across adult life (young adulthood, family life and late adult life), which will be presented as well as the socioecological model. 

Conclusions: We conclude that interventions into social and structural conditions are essential to support physical activity among physically inactive adults, and we point to the need to holistically integrate physical activity into people's lives beyond “simple” individual-level behaviour change. 

Purpose: To summarize built environment and physical activity research study findings from Mexico and the US, and shed light on the often-unrecognized roles that the issues of economic necessity versus “free healthy choices” play for understanding these relations and informing policy action across settings.  

Methods: The International Physical Activity Environment Network (IPEN) adult study was the first of its kind in Cuernavaca, Mexico (2011), replicating standardized accelerometry, GIS and survey methods used in 16 other cities across 11 additional countries across the globe (including US cities). More recently (2013-2022), the EcoBici and Travel Related Activity in Neighborhoods (TRAIN) studies assessed the effects of new urban infrastructure (cycle lanes, light-rail lines) on active travel in Mexico City, Mexico, and Houston, USA, respectively. In 2023, a new framework for conducting physical activity research in global settings emerged: the ‘necessity- versus choice-based physical activity models’ framework. The framework posits that the multilevel drivers of physical activity vary depending on whether physical activity results from economic necessity or true choices.  

Results: Although similar built environment characteristics are significantly associated with physical activity behaviors in Mexico and the USA, the direction, strength, and magnitude of associations varies by context. Studies from Mexico report null or inverse associations between the US-based walkability index and physical activity. Other factors, like park access and perceived neighborhood aesthetics, are more important environmental drivers of physical activity in Mexican cities. In the US, the walkability index is consistently positively associated with physical activity. New cycling infrastructure in Mexico City has led to increases in active travel behaviors; while in Houston the expansion of the light rail system did not appear to increase active travel.  

Conclusions: Some of the observed differences in the relations between the built environment and physical activity across Mexican and USA settings can be explained by the fact that necessity-based physical activity predominates in Mexico, while in the US, choice-based model is more common. Environmental approaches to promote physical activity must consider the roles of necessity versus choice in the target communities, and incorporate maintenance and quality of life as additional key outcomes of interest.