PARTICIPATION IN EXERCISE

The National Health Survey (NHS) has collected comparable information on participation in exercise (walking, moderate exercise and vigorous exercise) by Australians aged 18 years and over for several successive surveys, commencing with 1989-90. The data include all persons who participated in low, moderate or high levels of exercise. The levels of exercise participation during the two weeks prior to interview were defined as follows.

• High: more than 3200 minutes of exercise and 2 hours or more of vigorous exercise;
• Moderate: 1600-3200 minutes of exercise, or more than 3200 minutes but less than 2 hours of vigorous exercise;
• Low: 100 minutes to less than 1600 minutes of exercise.

Persons participating in less than 100 minutes of exercise (or no exercise at all) were defined as sedentary.

According to the NHS, the overall percentage of persons aged 18 years and over participating in exercise increased progressively from 1989-90 to reach 68.4% in 2001 and then declined to 65.9% in 2004-05. Most of the increase prior to 2001 was attributable to increased participation in low level exercise with there being little change in the percentage of persons participating in exercise at moderate or high levels.

For 2004-05, there were 66.9% of males and 73.6% of females classified as having a sedentary or low exercise level, whereas only 8.3% of males and 4.3% of females were classified as having a high level of exercise.

3.8 EXERCISE LEVEL(a)(b), By sex - 1995, 2001 and 2004-05
	1995	2001	2004-05
Exercise level	%	%	%
MALES
Sedentary	35.0	30.9	33.6
Low	30.7	34.1	33.3
Moderate	25.6	26.2	24.8
High	8.7	8.8	8.3
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0
FEMALES
Sedentary	35.4	32.2	34.4
Low	38.4	41.5	39.2
Moderate	21.7	22.4	22.0
High	4.5	3.9	4.3
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0
PERSONS
Sedentary	35.3	31.6	34.1
Low	34.5	37.8	36.3
Moderate	23.6	24.2	23.3
High	6.6	6.3	6.3
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0
(a) Relates to persons aged 18 years and over during the two weeks prior to interview in the year shown.
(b) This table contains age standardised percentages, which are those which would have prevailed should the actual populations for the three reference periods all have the standard age composition. The standard population used is the estimated resident population at 30 June 2001 based on the 2001 Census of Population and Housing. Such standardisation enables comparisons over time or across population groups.
Source: National Health Survey, Summary of Results, 2004-05 (cat. no. 4364.0).

Indigenous persons aged 15 years and over

Information from the National Health Survey relating to exercise for Indigenous Australians is only available for those living in non-remote areas. During the two weeks prior to interview in 2004-05, 48.6% of Indigenous persons aged 15 years and over living in non-remote areas participated in exercise (including low, moderate and high levels). This was considerably lower than the 66.9% of non-Indigenous Australians who participated. Indigenous participation was significantly less than non-Indigenous participation for all three levels of exercise.

When comparing the data for 2004-05 with that from 2001, any differences in non-Indigenous participation are relatively small. For Indigenous persons, however, the overall rate of participation in exercise dropped significantly from 57.9% in 2001 to 48.6% in 2004-05 (or by 16.1%). This was mainly due to a substantial fall in Indigenous persons participating in exercise at a moderate level. The participation rate for this fell by 31.6% from 23.9% in 2001 to 16.4% in 2004-05.

3.9 EXERCISE LEVEL, By Indigenous status(a)(b)(c) - 2001 and 2004-05
	2001		2004-2005
	Indigenous	Non-Indigenous	Indigenous	Non-Indigenous
Exercise level	%	%	%	%
Sedentary	42.1	30.8	50.5	33.1
Low	29.2	37.7	27.4	36.2
Moderate	23.9	24.5	16.4	23.8
High	4.8	7.1	4.8	6.9
Total(d)	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
(a) Relates to persons aged 15 years and over during the two weeks prior to interview.
(b) Age standardisation techniques have been used to remove the effect of the differing age structures in the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. The age standardised estimate of prevalence is that which would have prevailed had the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations had the standard age composition (i.e. the total estimated resident population of Australia as at 30 June 2001).
(c) Data relates to persons in non-remote areas. Non-remote areas are those that lie within the 'Major cities of Australia', 'Inner Regional Australia' and 'Outer Regional Australia' categories of the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC), 2005 (cat. no. 1216.0) Remoteness Structure.
(d) For 2004-05, includes persons for whom level of exercise was not stated.
Source: ABS data available on request, National Health Survey.

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