Young people's use of sports facilities: A Norwegian study on physical activity

Abstract

In recent years, sports facilities have formed part of Norwegian public health policies to increase physical activity among children and adolescents. Despite large sums of public money being spent on such facilities, information on usage is limited. Our aim was to study the effects of gender, age and relative activity level on young people's use of sports facilities. We explored 662 young people's (age 6-16 years) usage of 19 different kinds of sports facilities. A questionnaire was administered to students and teachers, and situation plots of students at recess were made. The findings indicate that sports facilities in general were less used by girls, adolescents (14-16 years) and the least active (physically active < or = 1 times/week outside school) than by boys, children (6-13 years) and the most active (physically active > or = 4 times/ week outside school). More general, multifunctional facilities were used to a greater extent than specialized facilities, particularly by the least active. Distance to facility was important for the use of common facilities. These results raise the question of whether sports facilities significantly increase physical activity among "all'' young people, which is the government's stated goal. More research on sports facilities use and physical activity levels among males and females of all ages is warranted.