page_title: Social influences on fitness behavior
section_title: Reasons for inactivity
hierarchical_section_title: Social influences on fitness behavior / Reasons for inactivity
caption_attribution_description: English: Nederlands Amsterdam: Cycle route through Rijksmuseum in direction of city Deutsch: Amsterdam: viel genutzte Fahrradroute durch das Rijksmuseum in Richtung Stadtmitte
context_page_description: Physical fitness is maintained by a range of physical activities. Physical activity is defined by the World Health Organization as "any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure." Human factors and social influences are important in starting and maintaining such activities. Social environments can influence motivation and persistence, through pressures towards social conformity.
context_section_description: In the West, there is a high prevalence of overweight and obese children and adults. In the US, only 26% of adults engage in vigorous leisure-time activity (which includes a sport) or exercising three or more times per week. In an effort to increase adult involvement and decrease the percentage of adult inactivity, the US Department of Health and Human Services has set a national health objective for 2010 that hopes to "Reduce the prevalence of no leisure time activity from more than 25 percent to 20 percent of US adults" (Berlin, Storti, and Brach 1137). In Australia, the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that in 2011/12 adults spent an average of 33 minutes per day doing physical activity with 60% of the population doing less than 30 minutes and fewer than 20% doing an hour or more per day on average. The survey also showed almost 30% of the adult population reporting more than five hours of sedentary leisure activity each day.
  Inactivity can contribute to a range of health related problems including: obesity, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, and other disorders. Researches have shown, "49 percent of heart disease in sedentary patients is due to lack of exercise" (Perkins, Whitehead, Steptoe 725) and the relative risk of metabolic syndrome was, "1.7 (95% CI 0.9–2.8) for lack of exercise, 1.5 (95% CI 1.1–2.1) for a positive family history and 2.0 (95% CI 1.2–3.4) in individuals with none or only an elementary school education versus university graduation" (Lee et al. 48).
  Inactivity in young people has been seen to be rising in recent years, and the prevalence of sedentary leisure activities for children is significant. Video games and the internet may play a part in this. It has been found that "26 percent of children and adolescents in the United States spend more than four hours a day watching television, and they have become even more sedentary with access to computers and video games" (Damlo 1434). Along with, "62 percent of children nine to thirteen years of age do not participate in organized physical activities, and 23 percent do not participate in non-organized physical activities outside of school hours" (1434).
  There may be many reasons why people may remain inactive. One reason may be due to laziness. Individuals completed a Physical Activity Questionnaire and research showed "Over one third (34 percent) of female and 12 percent of male adolescents had no leisure physical activity during a one-week period. Self-efficacy was found to have the highest correlation to leisure physical activity among all selected determinants, while 'laziness' had the highest correlation among perceived barriers" (Analysis). Along with the questionnaire other research suggested that fitness groups and fitness programs positively altered the exercise behavior of families and youths.
  Another reason for physical inactivity is the perception by populations that there is nowhere safe to do so. As cities become more populated, the increased need for housing overtakes the desire for parks, cycle and walk ways therefore increasing the amount of physical inactivity in the population. Ways that can help increase the amount of physical activity is to plan and build the environment in a way that makes the population of the community feel safe to be physically active in the area. This could be done for example by slowing speed limits to safer speeds and providing safe street crossings and also by building infrastructure close to the street and pathways with safe pedestrian and cycle access and safe bike parking. By implementing these simple changes into communities, the residents will have an increased feel in security and therefore increase their daily physical activity.
caption: Nederlands Amsterdam: Cycle route through Rijksmuseum in direction of city
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