Food & Health Alliance

This supplementary data accompanies the main  2008 Scottish Health Survey Report, providing further data in relation to physical activity at work, location of physical activity, sedentary behaviour and the physical activity levels of children.

Physical Activity at Work

Around a third of men and women (29% and 33% respectively) indicated that their job mainly involved sitting down. When asked about physical activities involved in their job (i.e. whether their work involved moving between floors, climbing (ladders, scaffolding etc), lifting heavy loads or carrying heavy objects), more than four in ten (43% of men and 45% of women) reported their work involved none of these activities. There was no clear pattern with age although it should be noted that the sample sizes for individual age groups are relatively small and therefore care should be taken when comparing and interpreting results. Table W16

Location of Physical Activity

Adults were asked which places they had used for physical activity and were able to record multiple answers. The most common location for both men and women was pavements and streets in their local area (60% of men and 65% of women). This was followed by home or garden (38% of men, 44% of women), an open space or park (28% for both men and women), and a woodland, forest or tree covered park (25% of men and 24% of women). Table W27

Sedentary Behaviour

Men were likely to spend more time sitting at a screen (i.e. including television viewing or using a computer or games console other than at work, school or college) on an average day than women. This applied to both weekdays (3.6 vs 3.1 hours per day on average) and weekend days (4.2 vs 3.6 hours per day on average). Both men and women spent more time sitting at a screen on weekend days than week days. Over half (52%) of men spent more than 4 hours per day sitting at a screen on weekend days compared with 44% of women. Those aged 55 and over were likely to spend more time sitting at a screen on weekdays than younger participants. It should be noted that the sample sizes for each age group in this table are relatively small and therefore care should be taken when comparing and interpreting results. Table W17

Child Physical Activity

When considering physical activity taking place outwith school lessons, the proportion of children meeting the recommendations (at least 60 minutes on every day) has remained fairly stable for boys over time (72% in 1998, 74% in 2003 and 72% in 2008). For girls, the proportion rose from 59% in 1998 to 63% in 2003 and fell to 56% in 2008. Table W29

Boys were consistently more likely to meet the recommendations than girls at every age. For both sexes, the older age group (13-15 year olds) were less likely to meet the recommendations than younger children although this gap was more marked for girls (33% compared to a range of 57% to 67% among younger age groups). Table W30

The survey has traditionally focussed on physical activity outwith school but in 2008 additional questions were asked about physical activity within school lessons. 70% of boys and 69% of girls did some physical activity within school lessons. The most common frequency of school-based physical activity was 2 days per week (32% of boys and 30% of girls) although 23% of boys and 22% of girls reported doing physical activity at school on 3 or more days per week. Table W31

When physical activity within school lessons are taken into account the proportion of boys meeting the recommendations increases from 72% to 77% and girls from 56% to 64%. It is not possible to measure changes since 1998 using this measure as there is no comparable information on school based physical activity prior to 2008. Changes over time can be tracked in future as these questions are being included in the survey in every year from 2008 onwards. Table W32

There is no clear socio-demographic pattern in the proportion of children meeting physical activity recommendations (including school based activity). Boys in the 1st (highest) and 4th income quintiles were most likely to meet the recommendations. For girls, those in the 2nd and 4th quintiles were most likely to meet the recommendations. The highest proportions meeting the recommendations were found in the least and most deprived quintiles for both boys and girls. It should be noted that the sample sizes for certain sub-groups in the socio-demographic analysis are fairly low and therefore care should be taken when drawing any conclusions. Tables W33, W34, W35