The contribution of organised sports to physical activity in Australia: Results and directions from the Active Healthy Kids Australia 2014 Report Card on physical activity for children and young people

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Abstract

Youth participation in organised sport and physical activity is important for healthy development, growth and wellbeing. In 2014, Active Healthy Kids Australia released its inaugural Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Young People, which synthesised the best available national- and state-level data for children and young people (<18 years). This paper provides a more detailed examination of the evidence informing the grade for Organised Sport from the 2014 Report Card, compares Australia's Organised Sport grade with other countries, identifies future directions for research and surveillance, and explores possible beneficial strategies. The Report Card highlighted that between 64% and 85% of Australians aged 5–17 years participate in organised sports, a rate higher than alternate forms of physical activity such as active transportation, active play and school based physical activity. This finding reflects Australia's position as one of the global leaders for participating in organised sport. Future research and surveillance methodologies however, need to incorporate standardised metrics that aim to capture more detailed data regarding organised sport participation. Facilitating access for all children and preventing dropout from organised sports are important initiatives to improve current levels of sport participation. However, given that 80% of Australians aged 5–17 years are not sufficiently physically active to achieve the daily recommendation, participation in sport alone is not enough to ensure that children can accrue the health benefits associated with being physically active. As such, there is a pressing need to develop strategies that engage children in other forms of physical activity such as active transportation and active play.

Introduction

Sport occupies a prominent place in the Australian national identity. The number one indicator of national pride in Australia is international sporting achievements,1 which is reflected in the large number of Australians aged 5–17 years (64–85%) who participate in some form of organised sport.2 Organised youth sports are adult-controlled and led programmes with children and young people typically attending training and competitive fixtures under the formal guidance and supervision of an adult leader, most often the coach.3 While current figures show Australia is a leading nation in youth sports participation, compared to other developed and developing countries with reported participation rates of 20–59%,4 it is still concerning that about one third of young Australians do not participate in any form of organised sport or physical activity.2 National data show that Australian children who participate in organised sports have better health-related quality of life and mental health than their non-participating peers.5, 6 However, analyses of the overall physical activity levels of Australian children unequivocally demonstrate that sport is not enough as the sole outlet for physical activity with less than 20% of Australians aged 5–17 years meeting the recommended Australian physical activity guidelines.2

Section snippets

Physical activity and sport: Are they the same and why are both important?

Physical activity is “any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that results in energy expenditure“,7 however physical activity and sport are not synonymous. Physical activity can be divided into components, including: leisure-time; occupational (e.g., physical education participation at school); transport (e.g., walking to and or from different destinations); and domestic (e.g., household chores) related activity, with sport a sub-set of leisure time physical activity.8 Therefore the

What is the Physical Activity Report Card and what is its purpose?

Active Healthy Kids Canada has released a Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth annually for the past 10 years.17 The Report Card is a translation of knowledge on surveillance, policy and research related to physical activity of children and youth, which aims to inform stakeholders of the epidemiology of children's physical activity, guide programmes, messages and policies to promote and support physical activity, and highlight where high quality national data are lacking for

Summary of the evidence used to grade the participation levels of Australian children and young people in organised sports

The core metric used to assess participation in organised sport was ‘the proportion of Australian children and young people participating in organised sport at least once over the past 12 months [both in and outside of school]’ and the grade assigned was reflective of the synthesis of several large national data sets that report a range of participation rates, with variations potentially highlighting measurement inconsistencies. For example, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimated

Findings based on additional national and state-based sources

The ABS report the overall organised sport participation rates of Australians aged 5–14 years has remained relatively stable over the last 15 years. In the year 2000, 64% of children participated in organised sports, 68% in 2006,24 and 66% in 2012.19 However, when examining state-based data, it appears there has been an increase in sports participation in some states. For example in South Australia participation in organised sports among 9–13 year olds increased from 57% to 68% between 1985 and

Comparison to other countries

The 2014 Physical Activity Report Card was released alongside the 14 other country report cards as part of a “Global Matrix” of grades4 released at the Global Summit on Physical Activity for Children in Toronto, Canada, in May 2014. All country report cards graded nine core indicators of physical activity using a standardised methodology and reporting process (e.g., the metric used to assess Organised Sport was ‘the proportion of children and youth who participate in organised sport and/or

Future directions for research and surveillance

The inconsistency in measurement of physical activity behaviours across Australian states and territories is detrimental when determining estimates of organised sports participation as well as other physical activity domains. The Australian Physical Activity Report Card highlighted this significant issue and a key recommendation of the Report Card's RWG was to address measurement issues. Accelerometry, despite providing objective estimates, is not the sole solution as it does not provide

Improving the grade

Sport occupies a prominent place in the Australian national identity, but despite Australia being one of the leading countries worldwide in terms of participation, 25–35% of young Australians (5–17 years) do not participate in organised sports. An important opportunity exists to leverage the significant national interest in sports to promote greater participation through direct and indirect means. Direct means include increasing access to organised sports and preventing dropout, while indirect

Is sport enough?

It is encouraging that a large proportion of young Australians participate in organised sport. It is also important that attempts are being made at the community, state and national levels to standardise research and surveillance methodologies and improve the grade through various programmes, policies and strategies. However, as mentioned previously, sport is only one component of physical activity8 therefore in order to improve the Overall Physical Activity Levels of young Australians, we need

Limitations of the Report Card methodology and its findings

The 2014 AHKA Report Card is based upon the best available national- and state-level data but there are methodological limitations that need to be noted. The heterogeneity of data collection methodologies (e.g., self-report, proxy-report CATI) and instruments/questionnaires (e.g., difference in questions, recall periods) is a limitation as different methods and instruments can produce different estimates. The use of self-report data is also a limitation, however population monitoring typically

Conclusion

It is estimated that over two-thirds of Australian children participate in sport, however less than 20% meet daily physical activity recommendations. While sport provides many health and psycho-social benefits to children, it is clearly not enough. The AHKA 2014 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Young People has highlighted evidence gaps including a lack of participation information (e.g., drop-outs, and commencers of participation), limited surveillance data across state

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all other members of the Research Working Group for their assistance and guidance during the production of the 2014 Report Card. Prof Tim Olds, Dr Dylan Cliff, Dr Lina Engelen, Prof Billie Giles-Corti, Dr Sjaan Gomersall, Dr Kylie Hesketh, A Prof David Lubans, Prof Dune Macdonald, Ms Rona Macniven, Prof Tony Okely, Dr Anne-Maree Parrish, A Prof Trevor Shilton, Prof Leon Straker, A Prof Anna Timperio, Prof Stewart Trost and Prof Jenny Ziviani.

The 2014 Report Card used unit

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