MEDICINE PREVENTIVE SECTION   

Medicina dello Sport 2003 September;56(3):175-83

Copyright © 2003 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Physical activity and Socio-economic status: results of a pilot study

La Torre G. ¹, Masala D. ², De Vito E. ¹, Arzano I. ¹, Fargione V. ¹, Capelli G. ¹

¹ Cattedra di Igiene, Università degli Studi di Cassino, Cassino; ² Corso di Laurea in Scienze Motorie, Università degli Studi di Cassino, Cassino

Aim. The rela­tion ­between phys­ical ­activity and ­health ­status has ­been ­deeply inves­ti­gated in sev­eral ­studies, ­while the rela­tion ­between phys­ical ­activity and ­socio-eco­nomic ­status (SES) is ­less inves­ti­gated. The aim of ­this ­study was to eval­uate the effi­cacy of a ques­tion­naire in ­paying atten­tion to the rela­tion ­between ­extra-­school phys­ical ­activity of ado­les­cents and SES of ­their fam­i­lies.
­Methods. The ­survey was car­ried out sub­mit­ting an anon­y­mous ques­tion­naire to ­junior ­high ­school stu­dents of ­Itri (LT), in May 2002.
­Results. A ­total of 280 stu­dents ­agreed to par­tic­i­pate to the ­study, 143 ­males (51.1%) and 137 ­females (48.9%), ­aged ­between 11 and 15 ­years (­median age: 12). The ­results ­showed ­that 70.4% of the stu­dents ­declared to prac­tice ­extra-­school phys­ical ­activity. ­Parents’ edu­ca­tional ­levels and ­work activ­ities ­play a fun­da­mental ­role in pre­dicting ­students’ phys­ical ­activity, ­with the ­higher remu­ner­ated activ­ities and ­higher edu­ca­tional ­levels ­that are ­more pre­dic­tive.
Con­clu­sion. The ­pilot ­study con­ducted dem­on­strated the reli­ability of the ques­tion­naire, ­because we ­obtained a ­full adhe­sion of the stu­dents. More­over, the ­results con­firm the rela­tion ­between ­adolescents’ phys­ical ­activity and ­their ­families’ SES. ­This ­will be ­useful for ­school per­sonnel and for pol­i­ti­cians in ­order to ­reduce the gap ­between ado­les­cents ­belonging to dis­ad­van­taged fam­i­lies and ­those ­with ­well-to-do ­ones.