Submission to the inquiry into physical activity of children and young people
Professor Simon Murphy
Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer), Cardiff University
What do we know about physical activity levels in children in Wales? How robust is the data on this issue?
1. The School Health Research Network (SHRN) collects data biennially on physical activity levels in secondary school aged children. SHRN is a partnership between Welsh Government, Public Health Wales, Cancer Research UK and Cardiff University. It aims to improve young people’s health and wellbeing by (i) providing robust health and wellbeing data for school, regional and national stakeholders; (ii) working with policy-makers and practitioners from health, education and social care to co-produce high quality, school based health and wellbeing research for Wales; and (iii) helping schools, and those who support schools, to understand health research evidence and how it can be used in schools. Schools serving secondary school aged students in Wales make up the Network’s membership, which currently stands at 99% of eligible maintained schools.
2. Every two years SHRN member schools undertake a Student Health and Wellbeing Survey and complete a School Environment Questionnaire. The student survey is based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Survey (HBSC), which Wales has participated in since the 1980s and is now delivered through the SHRN infrastructure. In 2015 the student survey included approximately 35,000 11-16 year olds from 87 schools. A school environment questionnaire was completed in 100 schools. Both the schools and the students within them were representative of all schools and of all 11-16 year olds in Wales respectively. Currently 192 schools have registered to take part in the Student Health and Wellbeing Survey in 2017/18, so the estimated student sample for 2017 is 90 - 100,000.
3. In 2015 a number of measures relevant to this Inquiry were included in the Student Health and Wellbeing Survey:
a. Number of days in the past 7 days on which the student was moderate-to-vigorously physically active (MVPA) for at least 60 minutes per day
b. Frequency of engaging in vigorous physical activity (VPA) outside of school hours
c. Time spent in a typical week in the last 6 months in sports or clubs that involve physical activity, both in school and out of school
d. Usual activity during the school lunch break
e. Use of a mode of active travel to school
f. Hours spent in sedentary screen time per day on weekdays outside of school
4. All of the above measures, bar c and d, were also included in the 2013 HBSC survey. This also collected hours per week spent in VPA, active travel from school and journey time, and weekend sedentary screen time.
5. Government Social Research publish data from the Welsh 2013 HBSC survey. We are actively seeking funding to analyse the above measures from the 2015 Student Health and Wellbeing Survey and suggest that supporting analysis of this valuable resource should be a Government priority.
6. Measures relevant to this Inquiry included in the 2017 Student Health and Wellbeing Survey are:
a. Number of days in the past 7 days on which the student was moderate-to-vigorously physically active for at least 60 minutes per day
b. Frequency of engaging in VPA outside of school hours
c. Frequency of engaging in VPA in the last summer holidays
d. Participation in sports or clubs that involve physical activity, both in school and out of school