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Questionnaire development: Questionnaire contents

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Questionnaire contents

The questionnaire was designed to capture activity levels as defined by CMO guidelines1. From this, three levels of activity have been defined:

  • Active: at least 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity activity in bouts of 10 minutes or more spread over several days. Periods of vigorous activity are counted as double.
  • Fairly active: 30 – 149 minutes per week of moderate intensity activity in bouts of 10 minutes or more spread over several days. Periods of vigorous activity are counted as double.
  • Inactive: less than 30 minutes per week of moderate intensity activity in bouts of 10 minutes or more spread over several days. Periods of vigorous activity are counted as double.

The questionnaire has evolved over time to reflect the latest strategy aims of the Government and Sport England. 

The Government’s current ‘Get Active’2 Strategy includes a number of targets in relation to physical activity. 

The Active Lives survey will be used to monitor progress against the headline national ambitions, as well as the specific targets to tackle disparities in participation rates. 

The table below shows the targets which will be assessed using Active Lives survey data.

  • Activity targets measured by the Active Lives survey

    Get Active target
    • Over 2.5 million more active adults as defined through the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines on physical activity
    • 1.4 million more active adults from those in NS-SEC 6-8 (see terminology)
    • 0.7 million more active people who identify as having 1 or more disabilities
    • 1.5 million more active adults aged 55+
    • 1.25 million more active women
    • 0.19 million more active Asian adults, particularly people from Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic groups
    • 0.09 million more active black adults
    • Increase activity rates in all parts of the country
    • Decrease inactivity rates in all parts of the country.

    Sport England has a responsibility to collect data on participation in specific sports and disciplines, not just overall participation in activity.

    To produce data for these measures, the questionnaire needed to ask questions to capture information on:

    • which activities people take part in
    • how often they take part
    • how long they take part for each time, and
    • the intensity of the activity.

    In addition, Sport England needed information on the settings in which people take part in activities, particularly outdoor settings as participating in sport and activity in the natural environment is a key element of the Government's Get Active strategy.
     

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1 CMO guidelines have subsequently been revised to remove the requirement for bouts of activity to last at least 10 minutes or more. This condition has been kept in Active Lives survey definitions, however, to allow for comparability across years.

2 Get Active: a strategy for the future of sport and physical activity

Previous section: 2a Next section: Continue to 2c

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