Physical activity is good for your health. Here are the habits of the French in this area.
- Men do more physical activity than women.
- The French do very little physical activity to go to work.
- Walking is the most practiced leisure physical activity in France.
A new study of Public Health France on the physical activity of French adults analyzes their habits in this area.
More physical activity in men
“The proportion of insufficiently active adults being high in France, a better understanding of practices in this area is a public health issue to better target prevention”justify the researchers in the preamble.
During the period 2014-2016, the total weekly duration of moderate-to-vigorous intensity activity was significantly higher in men than in women. Compared to women, men practice more physical activity in the areas of work, leisure, transport to work and domestic activities.
More generally, physical activity in the field of transport to get to work remains low (respectively accounting for 1.2% and 0.7% of weekly physical activity among men and women).
Walking is the most practiced activity
Regarding leisure, walking is the most practiced activity regardless of gender (82.6% for men and 91.6% for women).
“A higher diversity of leisure physical activities practiced is related to a better achievement of health recommendations”, can we also read in the survey. “It therefore seems important to promote public health policies aimed at investing in the least represented contextual areas (such as active mobility), particularly among women”, concludes Public Health France.
This work is based on a detailed analysis of data from the Esteban 2014-2016 cross-sectional survey collected with the Recent Physical Activity Questionnaire (RPAQ).
