Exercise as it relates to Disease/What is the contribution of sport to Australians overall health-enhancing physical activity?

This Wiki page is a university assignment in which the article: The contribution of sport participation to overall health enhancing physical activity levels in Australia: a population-based study is critiqued as part of the Health, Disease and Exercise unit at the University of Canberra.

What is the background to this research?
Research completed by Christine May for Clearinghouse for Sport, an Australian Sports Commission led information sharing initiative, found that in 2020, 89% of adults over 15 years of age participated in sport and physical activity. Conversely, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that in 2017-18, an estimated 67% of Australians are overweight or obese. The paper looked to fill the gaps in knowledge to determine the contribution sport plays to overall health enhancing leisure time in the adult Australian population. A survey of over 21,000 people was used to facilitate their research. They were asked to report any leisure time physical activity in the past 12 months and they then further categorised the data into health enhancing and non-health enhancing.

There has been a systematic review that found that it is likely that the social nature of sport plays a role in social and mental health and in turn results in greater quality of life. Whilst there is some evidence of this relationship, there is little known about the true extent at which sport plays in improving health in Australia. According to the Black Dog Institute, up to 20% of Australians suffer from a mental health condition, when looking at the obesity and mental health figures in Australia it is important that health officials look at ways in which we can make better decisions when it comes to physical activity and how it can best help improve Australians health.

Where is the research from?
This research has been conducted by a team of researchers from the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Active Living at Victoria University and the School of Health Sciences and Psychology, Federation University Australia. The lead author, Rochelle Eime, is a professor of Sport Participation at Victoria University and sees her areas of expertise in sport participation and sport and health. Rochelle has published over 100 papers and has extensively researched different aspects of sports participation, barriers to sports participation and benefits to health. Throughout this research she has looked at community and club-based sports participation in Australia. All of the authors within this paper have a background in sports and exercise or psychology research and have a very broad range of peer reviewed articles in these fields. The authors have declared that they have no competing interests with this research. The basis of the research being to fill in the gaps in the literature around the contribution of sport to overall health-enhancing physical activity in adults in Australia.

What kind of research was this?
This study was conducted using a mixed method approach of 15 years old and up. There are aspects of both quantitative and qualitative data collection. The data for this study was collected using surveys, where a series of questions were asked to participants via telephone. The results from this data was used to identify number of participants that undertook physical activity. The questions asked focussed on whether they had participated in sport and then once this was established the researchers looked to investigate the different types of physical activity the participants participated in.

What did the research involve?
The data was connected from the 2010 Exercise, Recreation and Sport Survey which was commissioned by the Australian Sports Commission. Over the course of 2010, quarterly surveys were conducted and samples were selected from all Australians aged 15 years and over and live in an occupied dwelling. Roughly 3400 people were contacted each quarter from each state and territory in Australia and were sampled using computer-assisted telephone interviewing. In the beginning, participants provided their consent and were then asked if they had participated in any Leisure Time Physical Activity (LTPA) in the past 12 months. LTPA included any physical activity that wasn't physical activity related to employment, housework or garden work.

If yes, participants were then required to report what activities they had completed within this timeframe (up to 10), before going on to answer whether or not the reported activity was organised. If the reported activity was organised the participants were then asked to identify what type of organisation had organise the activity. Examples of these organisations included, fitness, leisure or indoor sports centre that required payment for participation; sport or recreation club or association that required payment of membership, fees or registration; work; school; other. The final question of this component asked the participants how many times they participated in their physical activity. Once these questions were recorded, participants were asked one final component to the study. The researchers looked at the participants physical activity in the previous two weeks. The participants had to nominate their three top activities. Of these they again had to identify how many sessions of these activities they had participated in the previous two weeks.

The methodology behind this study was the best for the question they researchers looked to answer. The survey research method allows the research team access to greater numbers of the population, relatively inexpensive, ability to gather large amounts of information and greater number of statistical power. Whilst there are benefits to survey research there are negatives that make survey research inefficient. The biggest issue with survey research is the recall discrepancy that ultimately occurs. Recalling data over the previous 12 months opens up the possibility of the participants over or under reporting and can lead to memory recall issues. Response rates are also an issue when conducting survey research. The methods stated that they contacted roughly 3400 participants each quarter. This does not guarantee that each phone call responded, there is nothing in the paper to suggest that they had a firm number required to meet each quarter or if they phoned other participants if one did not answer or did not wish to partake. Overall, for the purpose of this research question, survey research was the best way to conduct the research. This is because it allowed the researchers the greatest number of participants and a variety of individuals to give the best representation of physical activity in the Australian public.

What were the basic results?
At the base level the research found that Health Enhancing Leisure Time Physical Activity (HELPA) conducted by the participants occurred on a regular basis as opposed to on an occasion. Of all nominated HELPA activities by the respondents, around half was classified as sport. However, when looking at total number of sessions, sport only made up 30% of total HELPA sessions. When investigating the data further the researchers found that roughly 20% of club sport participants partook in aerobics/fitness training or went walking in the previous 12 months. Around 15% had run and just below 3% had done strength training in the same period. The numbers suggest that although the participants participate in organised sport regularly as part of their HELPA, they don't participate in much outside of their organised sport.

When looking at the number of club sport participants who in the previous 12 months participated in 4 selected physical activities which may be associated with club sport participation. The 4 selected activities were, aerobics/fitness training, running, weight training and walking. The significant relationships between club sport participation and these are activities are as followed:

- Aerobics/Fitness training indicated lower numbers of club members than non-club members participating

- Walking indicated lower numbers of club members than non-club members participating

- Running found higher numbers in club participants compared to non-club members

- The numbers around gym training were small and relationships were low.

Overall, the research has found that there is potential for sport to improve health through increased HELPA. Sporting clubs in Australia have the ability to play a key role in the implementation and promotion of this. The researchers viewed the survey results and broke them down into many different sub-categories, highlighting the many different relationships and how the apply to both males and females and people in different age brackets. As the results are based on survey answers, there is relatively only a small amount of ways the results can be interpreted. The only issue is using survey responses from around 21 thousand people as a snapshot of the whole of Australia. The researchers as a result do show the results as they are and do not over-emphasise what the numbers show.

What conclusions can we take from this research?
Club based sport participation in Australia has a real place in enhancing leisure time physical activity rates. As nearly all sport is at the health enhancing level, sports clubs play an important role in the setting for most activities and in a wider setting promote health through physical activity. Not only does sport help with the physical side of health enhancement, as briefly touched on in this paper, club based sport participation has the ability to improve mental health through the building and facilitating of relationships and other aspects. The promotion of sport as a health enhancing tool is something that should be implemented in public policy moving forward. Encouraging all Australians to seek out club based sport in one way or another has been shown to contribute significantly towards both physical and mental health and yet is still not a well known area.

A Swedish study on a similar topic has found that sport has a positive impact on preventing or alleviating mental illness as well as the well documented physical benefits. Physical activity, even at moderate levels has been shown to be far greater for you as opposed to being inactive or sedentary. The benefits around club based and organised sport also revolve around members of the community who struggle with the motivation to do physical activity on their own and prefer to do classes or similar. Overall, club based and organised sport in Australia should be pushed further in the public health setting to ensure that all Australians have the knowledge of the role it plays in their health.

Practical advice
Due to the results highlighting that sport contributes significantly to leisure time physical activity and that sport was found to be more often than not at the health enhancing level. There is a strong suggestion that sports clubs play an important role in promoting health through physical activity. The implication that sport plays a key role in health enhancing physical activity means that the promotion of organised sport to improve health should be done. The research does suggest that further research be done to investigate the role different physical activities play and if there is a dose specific response of sport participation. Practical advice found within the research suggests that public policy promotion is the best way to use the results and highlights the aspects that are missing within the current policies. Although the health benefits are well known, consideration around the negatives of sport participation. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released statistics on 2016-2017 and found that nearly 60 thousand Australians were hospitalised as a result of injuries sustained during sport. Whilst injuries from organised sport should not discourage participation, they should be taken into account when determining what type of organised sport they should choose.

Further information/resources
Further research by Rochelle Eime with relation to sport participation:


 * Are they worth their weight in gold ? Sport for older adults: benefits and barriers of their participation for sporting organisations
 * Sport participation settings: where and ‘how’ do Australians play sport?

Community based health research:


 * Outcomes of a Community-Based Dissemination of the Health Enhancement Program
 * Managing sport for health: An introduction to the special issue

Public Policy to Promote Physical Activity:


 * Public Policy Actions Needed to Promote Physical Activity