Correlates of physical activity in Interlake youth

Abstract

A social ecological framework is used in this study to identify health behaviours that have the potential to affect physical activity levels in Interlake youth. Data from two cycles of the Youth Health Survey (YHS) were used to identify which demographic, individual, social and environmental factors were associated with physical activity levels of youth. Boys were found to have higher rates of physical activity than girls. As students got older their physical activity rates declined. Sex, active transportation to school, screen time, healthy eating, self perception of body image, feelings of hopelessness and feeling close to people at school were significantly associated with physcial activity levels. Important differences have been identified between the individual, social and environmental factors that can potentially affect physical activity levels of youth based on the data produced by the Interlake YHS. Individual factors have the strongest association with physical activity levels, followed by environmental factors.