IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/oec/elsaad/112-en.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Current and past trends in physical activity in four OECD countries: Empirical results from time use surveys in Canada, France, Germany and the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Sahara Graf

    (OECD)

  • Michele Cecchini

    (OECD)

Abstract

Physical inactivity and sedentary behaviours have been rising throughout the OECD in recent decades. Lack of physical activity and excessive sedentary behaviour are well-known risk factors for non-communicable diseases, such as heart diseases, stroke, diabetes, and osteoporosis. As such, reducing physical inactivity and sedentary behaviours and increasing daily physical activity has become a crucial public health issue. Using nationally representative time use surveys, this paper presents the trends in physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviours over time, in Canada, France, Germany and the United States. A particular focus of this analysis is placed on sport activities. Men and women spend between 80 and 105 minutes daily in physical activities, with women spending more time in domestic physical activity, and men more time in sports. Participation in sport activities has been increasing over time, but no global trend for time spent in sports is visible; additionally, women are consistently less likely than men to report engagement in sport activities. Meanwhile, participation in active travel has been decreasing, displaying no overall trend for duration either. Education-based inequalities for sports participation are higher in men than in women, while income-based inequalities for sports are higher in women than in men. Men and women with a low level of income are more likely to report active travel in all countries. Additional MET (metabolic equivalent) hours spent in sports and non-sports leisure PA, domestic PA, and active travel are all associated with an increase in total PA, while work-related PA as well as other activities are associated with a decrease in total PA. At the individual level, an increase in time spent in all previously mentioned activities is associated with a decrease in total time spent in sedentary behaviours.

Suggested Citation

  • Sahara Graf & Michele Cecchini, 2019. "Current and past trends in physical activity in four OECD countries: Empirical results from time use surveys in Canada, France, Germany and the United States," OECD Health Working Papers 112, OECD Publishing.
  • Handle: RePEc:oec:elsaad:112-en
    DOI: 10.1787/22cad404-en
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1787/22cad404-en
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1787/22cad404-en?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jan Marcus & Thomas Siedler & Nicolas R. Ziebarth, 2022. "The Long-Run Effects of Sports Club Vouchers for Primary School Children," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 128-165, August.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • C02 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General - - - Mathematical Economics
    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oec:elsaad:112-en. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eloecfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.