Personal, social, and environmental correlates of physical activity in adults living in rural south-west England: a cross-sectional analysis

Emma Solomon, Tim Rees, Obioha C. Ukoumunne, Brad Metcalf, Melvyn Hillsdon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Background Despite the health risks, physical inactivity is common. Identifying the correlates of physical activity to inform the design of interventions to reduce the disease burden associated with physical inactivity is a public health imperative. Rural adults have a unique set of characteristics influencing their activity behaviour, and are typically understudied, especially in England. The aim of this study was to identify the personal, social, and environmental correlates of physical activity in adults living in rural villages. Methods The study used baseline data from 2415 adults (response rate: 37.7%) participating in the first time period of a stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial, conducted in 128 rural villages from south-west England. Data collected included demographic characteristics, social factors, perception of the local environment, village level factors (percentage male, mean age, population density, Index of Multiple Deprivation, and sport market segmentation), and physical activity behaviour. Random effects (“multilevel”) logistic regression models were fitted to the binary outcome whether individuals met physical activity guidelines, and random effects linear regression models were fitted to the continuous outcome MET-minutes per week leisure time physical activity, using the personal, social, environmental, and village-level factors as predictors. Results The following factors both increased the odds of meeting the recommended activity guidelines and were associated with more leisure-time physical activity: being male (p = 0.002), in good health (p 
Original languageEnglish
Article number129
Number of pages15
JournalInternational Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
Volume10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Nov 2013

Keywords

  • Physical activity, Rural communities, Cross-sectional, Multilevel modelling

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