Associations of types of physical activity with self-rated physical and mental health in Denmark.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the association between types of physical activity and self-rated physical and mental health. The analyses are based on data from a Danish 2020 survey of adults' exercise habits. The questionnaire was answered by 163,131 adults of whom 55 pct. were women and relatively evenly distributed by age. The questionnaire included questions about participation in different types of physical activity, self-rate of physical and mental health and sociodemographic and socioeconomic background. The analysis distinguishes between 16 main types of sports and exercise activities, cycling as a mode of transport, and gardening at home. The statistical analysis consists of ordinal regression, where the association between practicing a certain form of physical activity and self-rated health takes into account the adults other physical activity habits and their socio-economic and socio-demographic background. The analyses show, firstly, that the association, for most types of physical activity, is stronger for self-rated physical health than for self-rated mental health. Secondly, there are large differences in the strength of the association between the different types of physical activity. Thirdly, the association is significantly stronger for those who practise an activity type most days of the week than for those who do it less often. Fourthly, the analyses show small gender differences in the association between types of physical activity and self-rated health. Finally, the more different types of activity a person practises during a week, the better the self-rated health, but this primarily applies to self-rated physical health.

Motives for leisure-time physical activity participation: an analysis of their prevalence, consistency and associations with activity type and social background.

BACKGROUND: Studies argue that knowledge about motives for physical activity participation can inform activities, initiatives and interventions to promote physical activity. However, most of these studies are based on small sample sizes and only include participants within a few selected types of PA. Further, they have not examined the consistency of individuals' motives across different activity types. As a result, this article examines RQ1: the most prevalent motives, RQ2: the association of motives with activity type and social background characteristics, and RQ3: the consistency of motives across different activity types. METHODS: We utilised data from a survey of physical activity participation among 163,000 adult Danes (aged 15 + years). In the survey, the participants were asked about their participation in thirteen activity types and about their motives for practising the activity types they reported to do at least weekly. The motive items were operationalised based on the eight dimensions in the Physical Activity and Leisure Motivation Scale (PALMS). We conducted analyses of mean values and standard deviations as well as multilevel regression analyses. RESULTS: We identified large differences in the importance of different motives for physical activity participation. The three most important motives were psychological condition (M = 4.54), physical condition (M = 4.48) and enjoyment (M = 4.36). We also found significant associations between motives and activity types in particular, but also between motives and social background characteristics (gender, age and educational level). For instance, we found that compared to running, physical condition was a much less important motive in outdoor activities (b = -3.01), activities on water (b = -2.44) and street sports (b = -2.38). Finally, our analysis showed how individuals' motives are not consistent across different activity types. CONCLUSIONS: Our study contributes to the literature on motives for physical activity participation by using a large sample of individuals and by differentiating motives according to a wide range of activity types. The results underline the need to study motives in relation to activity types, as there are large differences in the prevalence of different motives. Our findings suggest that motives are not consistent across activity types, but rather they develop in an interplay between the individual and the activity type practised.

Recreational walking and perceived environmental qualities: a national map-based survey in Denmark.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study is to explore the diversity in recreational walking motives across groups with different sociodemographic characteristics, and to use a dynamic and person-centered approach to geographically assess recreational walking behavior, and preferences for place quality related to recreational walking. METHODS: A total of 1838 adult respondents (age 15-90 years), who engage in recreational walking, participated in the map-based survey. We used the online platform Maptionnaire to collect georeferenced information on the respondents' home location, other start locations for walking trips, and point of interest on their trips. Distance between home location and other start locations as well as point of interest were computed using a Geographic Information System (GIS). Additional information on recreational walking behavior and motives were collected using the traditional questionnaire function in Maptionnaire. RESULTS: The most prevalent motives for walking were mental well-being and physical health, together with enjoyment and experiences related to walking. Having a tertiary education was positively associated with mental well-being motive, experiences, and taking the dog and the children outside. Income was also positively associated with experiences and walking the dog together with enjoyment of walking and spending time with others. Using the map-based approach, we found that recreational walking often starts at a location away from home and is not limited to the nearest neighborhood. A total of 4598 points of interest were mapped, and the most frequently reported place qualities were greenery, water, wildlife, good views, and tranquility. CONCLUSION: We used a dynamic and person-centered approach and thereby giving the respondents the opportunity to point to relevant locations for their walking behavior independently of their residential neighborhood. Recreational walking often starts away from home or is not limit to the nearest neighborhod. The median distance from home to the mapped points of interests was between 1.0 and 1.6 km for home-based trips and between 9.4 and 30.6 km for trips with other start locations. The most popular place quality related to the mapped points were greenery, water, wildlife, good views, and tranquility.