Physical activity among Norwegian adolescents- a multilevel analysis of how place of residence is associated with health behaviour: the Young-HUNT study

Abstract

IntroductionThe purpose of this article is to investigate whether and to what degree participation in physical activity among adolescents is associated with area economic deprivation in the municipality where they live. In the study we took account of aggregated informal social capital at the municipality level and compositional effects due to spatial concentration of individual variables known to be associated with physical activity. These include informal social participation, participation in other cultural activities, and family affluence.MethodsThe study was based on a secondary analysis of data from the Norwegian HUNT study and municipality characteristics from the Norwegian Social Science Data Service ‘Commune Database’ from 2006. The sample consisted of 8114 adolescents whose ages ranged from 13 to 19. The explanatory power of the independent variables on the dependent variable was assessed using a multilevel analysis in which individuals comprised the first level and were nested within the municipality level.ResultsThe average level of physical activity was not negatively associated with the level of area economic deprivation when we adjusted for informal social participation at the community level. Adjusting for area economic deprivation, we found that informal social participation at the community level was associated with a higher level of participation in physical activity at p< .01.ConclusionFor adolescents in a given municipality, informal social participation is more strongly associated with a higher level of physical activity than the degree of area economic deprivation. This finding supports our social capital hypothesis, which states that the amount of social capital is strengthening the individual’s ability to take part in physical activity.

The Tromsø Study: Fit Futures: a study of Norwegian adolescents’ lifestyle and bone health

“…In our study both boys and girls that reported hard training had more than 1 SD higher BMD at the femoral sites, compared to those who were sedentary. A former Norwegian population-based study reported participation in sports outside school for 16-years-old youth to a mean of 3.72 (SD 2.37) hours a week [41]. Compared to these, our adolescents reported slightly higher physical activity levels (0.56 hours, CI [0.325-0.795]).…”

The impact of neighborhood on physical activity in the Jackson Heart Study

“…Rural neighborhoods had more Active Living PA compared with urban, and individual participant educational level had somewhat different results depending on the neighborhood education level. Our findings of an independent association of neighborhood on Active Living and Sports PA confirm those of other studies of neighborhood influences (Mujahid et al, 2007; Piro et al, 2006; Riva et al, 2009) with neighborhood accounting for 3.8% of the variance in Active Living PA scores, similar to other studies (Boone-Heinonen et al, 2011; Logstein et al, 2013). …”

The neighborhood social environment and physical activity: a systematic scoping review

“…Social connectedness was measured two ways: by asking participants the number of neighbors that they knew by name [42] or the degree to which they agree with the statement ‘people in this neighborhood can be trusted.’ [61] Measures within this dimension that were at the aggregate level included: ‘Other Children in the Neighborhood’ measured as the population density of children [17] and ‘Social Relations’ measured using individual responses to Sampson’s neighborhood social cohesion and social control scale aggregated to the tract-level [62] and as individual’s social participation in different activities (e.g. recreational activities involving other people, activities of other political organizations; dining out or shopping with others) aggregated with other individual’s in the same neighborhood or municipality [63, 64].…”