29 March 2009

Exercise by adults correlates with education


In 1997 and 2007, the percentage of adults aged >25 years who reported regular leisure-time physical activity increased with level of education. In 2007, persons with a college degree or more were nearly three times as likely to report regular leisure-time physical activity (43.4%) as those who did not complete high school (14.9%). However, regardless of education level, from 1997 to 2007 no progress was made toward meeting the Healthy People 2010 target of 50% of persons reporting regular leisure-time physical activity.

4 comments:

  1. I am curious if it correlates better with types of jobs more than with education?

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  2. A.Fischer, I was just wondering roughly the same thing--perhaps it correlates with pay, since lesuire time physical activity tends to be expensive (e.g. gym membership).

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  3. Plus, many jobs include physical activity built in, so "exercise" for the sake of health is not necessary.

    For example, I'm a software developer who was struggling a bit with my weight. Instead of joining a gym, I began helping out a few days a week with a friends construction/remodeling company, and was able to get my weight back down to where I wanted it. In addition, I'm in better physical shape now.

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  4. And furthermore, the jobs that have "built-in" exercise tend to be those which require less education.

    I sense a lot of classism in this chart. Classifying exercise as a leisure activity makes it seem like the only exercise that counts is when a person stops all other activities, puts on a special outfit, and focuses on exercising. That, it seems to me, is a very middle-class or upper-class way of staying fit (and also is pretty weird, if you ask me). What about the very legitimate exercise that comes from active play with kids, gardening, physical job-related work, taking a walk with a friend, or even high-intensity cleaning or cooking?

    It seems to me if we're going to focus on creating a more healthy society, we've got to think of exercise and movement as part of our daily activities, not a separate, "leisure time" activity, which effectively restricts it to those with abundant resources and leisure time.

    So there's my beef with this chart.

    ReplyDelete

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