Original researchIs sport enough? Contribution of sport to overall moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity among adolescents
Section snippets
Practical implications
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The number of sports and frequency of participation explained just 3.2% and 3.8%, respectively, of the variance in MVPA min/day.
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Adolescents who participated in sport accumulated 7 min/day of MVPA more than those who did no sport. For each additional sport participated in, on average, there were approximately 5 additional min/day of MVPA.
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There were no moderating effects of age, sex, BMI or SES on the contribution of sports participation to adolescent MVPA.
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Targeting sports participation as a way
Methods
Data for the current study were drawn from the NEighbourhood Activity in Youth (NEArbY) study. Participants completed an online survey and were asked to wear an accelerometer. Ethical approval was received from the Deakin University Human Ethics Advisory Group (HEAG-H 152_2013), the Department of Education and Training (2013_002182) and the Catholic Education Office (Project ID #1950).
Schools from across Melbourne, Australia (n = 137) were selected from statistical areas of Melbourne that varied
Results
Valid accelerometry data were obtained from 380 adolescents, of which 358 also had valid survey data. Participants excluded were older (15.8 ± 1.6 versus 15.3 ± 1.5 years; p = 0.004) and on average had higher levels of MVPA (85.8 ± 90.9 versus 68.6 ± 27.4 min/day; p = 0.009). Excluded and non-excluded participants differed significantly in terms of sports participation (p < 0.0005). Of those adolescents excluded, only 29% participated in sport during the month the accelerometer was worn compared to 50% of
Discussion
Australian, and other governments, invest heavily into promoting sports participation as a strategy to increase population physical activity, yet there are surprisingly few studies that have examined the contribution of sports participation to overall physical activity among adolescents. Understanding this relationship is important for informing government policy and investment into initiatives to increase population physical activity. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate
Conclusion
This study found a minimal contribution of organised sports participation to overall MVPA among adolescents, irrespective of whether the number, intensity, frequency and type of sport was considered. Policies focused only on sport may have a minimal impact on population physical activity levels. National strategies to increase physical activity among youth may need to have a greater focus on active living, such as active transport policies and environmental infrastructure that is conducive to
Author contributions
HK led writing of the manuscript and conducted the analyses with GA. JS and AT conceptualised the study. All authors critically revised the manuscript for intellectual content, and read and approved the final draft.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank all participants and research staff involved in the NEArbY study. The NEArbY study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 HL111378. AT was supported by a Future Leader Fellowship from the National Heart Foundation of Australia (Award 100046) during the NEArbY study. LA is supported by an Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. KP is supported by a Deakin University Postgraduate Research Scholarship. The authors have no competing interests.
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