Abstract
BackgroundThe aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between knowledge of the current UK physical activity (PA) guidelines and amount of daily PA using a sample population of 11–16 year olds in Northern Ireland.MethodsCross-sectional survey data from the 2010 and 2013 Young Persons’ Behaviour and Attitudes Survey of 10,790 young people provided information on PA, knowledge of guidelines and socio-demographic characteristics. Multinomial logistic regression was used to investigate the associations between knowledge and amount of daily PA.ResultsResults from 2013 showed 67.0% of respondents were aware of PA guidelines with 15.4% reporting meeting them. Males were more likely to meet PA guidelines than females (OR 3.36, 95% CI 2.47, 4.59). Males who were active for 60 min or more, 7 days per week were less likely to be aware of guidelines (OR = 1.51, 95% CI 1.02, 2.24). For females, knowledge of PA guidelines had no significant association with amount of daily PA (OR = 1.74, 95% CI 0.99, 3.07). Those who did not enjoy being active were less likely to meet the guidelines (OR = 0.05, 95% CI 0.02, 0.12).ConclusionsKnowledge did not appear to be an important predictor of PA in young people. Consequently, threshold based messaging containing recommended minimum PA guideline information may not be appropriate for this age group. Re-branding PA promotion to include the use of humour may offer a new direction for public health messaging based around fun and enjoyment.
Highlights
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between knowledge of the current United Kingdom (UK) physical activity (PA) guidelines and amount of daily PA using a sample population of 11–16 year olds in Northern Ireland
Mass public health communication campaigns are commonly used by Government and public health organisations to increase public knowledge of how much PA is required for health benefits
In order to reflect the composition of the Northern Ireland post-primary population, weights were applied to the data to compensate for nonresponse bias in the achieved Young Persons’ Behaviour and Attitudes Survey (YPBAS) sample
Summary
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between knowledge of the current UK physical activity (PA) guidelines and amount of daily PA using a sample population of 11–16 year olds in Northern Ireland. Mass public health communication campaigns are commonly used by Government and public health organisations to increase public knowledge of how much PA is required for health benefits This is done in order to improve attitudes and intentions, which may lead to better informed choices and subsequent changes in PA behaviour [10]. These approaches are seen to be more cost effective and provide greater reach than individually focused, practitioner led interventions and can be seen in numerous PA campaigns, such as VERB (U.S), Live long Kids (Canada) Change4Life’ (UK), Push Play (New Zealand) ‘Get a Life, Get Active’ and ‘It all adds up’ (Northern Ireland) [11,12,13,14,15].
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