Physical Activity Participation & Trends

This report provides information using the ERASS (Exercise Recreation and Sports Survey), which is carried out quarterly by Sport and Recreation Departments throughout Australia and by the Australian Sports Commission. This report uses NSW-specific data. The usual use of these data are for describing the prevalence of participation in physical activity and recreation, with the focus on specific activities and specific types of sports.

This analysis uses a public health framework to identify the prevalence of ‘sufficient physical activity for health’, using the ERASS data set. This provides some new approaches to the use of routine Sport and Recreation Data, and complement the Active Australia Physical Activity Surveys collected by the Commonwealth Department of Health.

The ERASS surveys ask about activities over the previous 12 months, so provide a better measure of habitual physical activity in the population, but a much lower prevalence rate than the ‘previous week recall’ method used in the Active Australia Physical Activity surveys. In addition, the relative contributions of different types of activity, to total physical activity, is described. These ERASS data add sufficiently to our knowledge and understanding of the distribution and determinants of physical activity in populations.

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Emphasis in physical activity assessment has been on the measurement of leisure-time physical activities (LTPA). Some domestic and transport-related activities involve energy expenditures equivalent to moderate-intensity of 3.0-6.0 METS (1) considered to be of sufficient intensity to achieve a health benefit are yet to be included in routine population-level physical activity surveillance.

Because many people, such as women and elderly adults tend to spend substantial amounts of time engaged in household chores or gardening activities rather than or as a supplement to LTPA, prevalence estimates of physical activity in these groups based only on standard measures of physical activity may be underestimated.

Given that domestic activities may be the major source of energy expenditure for certain population groups, determining their relative contribution to the total activity level is an important step to demonstrating independent health benefits of engaging in domestic activities. We conducted additional analyses of the 1998 New South Wales Health Survey to examine the impact of including combined measures of 'vigorous household chores and gardening activities' as well as LTPA on the population estimates of health-enhancing physical activity.

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