Saskatoon in motion Physical Activity 2008 Survey

In the spring of 2008, Fast Consulting conducted a survey for Saskatoon* in motion with a representative sample of 1,706 Saskatoon Health Region (SHR) residents. The objective of the survey was to explore current physical activity levels of Saskatoon and region residents and measure how physically active they were according to federal health guidelines. The survey questionnaire was designed to enable respondents to describe all of the leisure physical activities they participated in during the seven days previous to the survey, how many times they participated in each of them, and the duration each time. This was the fifth biennial survey that has been conducted with Saskatoon residents since 2000.

The 2008 results indicated that since 2006 the proportion of adult residents who exercise enough to receive health benefits has decreased slightly, but that the proportion of children (aged 5 – 12) and youth (aged 13 – 19) who exercise enough to receive health benefits has increased.

When comparing the 2008 data to the previous four surveys, overall, the percentage of SHR residents who are physically active remains similar. In the past reports, physical activity was measured in terms of minutes of activity rather than energy expenditure (see page V for an explanation of physical activity measurement). The 2008 data was converted to minutes to compare overall activity levels to past years. When activity measured in minutes was applied to the 2008 data, the proportion of SHR residents that exercise for health benefits is
reported at 50%, despite adult activity levels decreasing. In 2006, the percentage of SHR residents who were active for health benefits was 49%, in 2004 50%, 2002 49% and in 2000 36%. This data suggests that SHR residents are maintaining their level of physical activity levels as a population, however, some populations, such as youth, have increased their activity levels more than the other age cohorts. . This data is consistent with Statistics Canada’s 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey, which reported that 47% of Saskatchewan residents are physically active for health benefits.

Adults may be less active for reasons that are beyond the measurement of this report. For example, there was significant growth in the economy of Saskatoon and Saskatchewan. In many ways, Saskatchewan communities may be different in 2008 than in 2006 having undergone unprecedented growth associated with the fastest growing economy in Canada. It is possible that this heated economy motivated work / family / leisure lifestyle balance changes that impacted leisure physical activity levels; however, this hypothesis was not specifically explore in this report.

Secondly, there was evidence in our report that the weather during surveying may have impacted the number of active adults. We attempt to keep the timing of each survey relatively consistent, surveying for a three-week period in early spring. Weather may have played a role in this year’s seven day recall of physical activity due to heavy snow fall and low temperatures; this was reported as one of the primary barriers accounting for adults participating in activities less frequently than they had previously.

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