Are women who have children at risk of poor health? A study to be published in the June issue of the journal Public Health and available online suggests that women with children engage in less physical activity than those without children.
To achieve this finding, a team of researchers from Denmark and the United Kingdom studied the results of the 2021 Danish National Health Survey. They analyzed data related to the hours of physical activity reported by 9,338 women with children (46.6% of the sample). 10,684 women without children (53.4% of the sample), aged 16 to 40. They then compared these statements with the recommendations on the subject from the World Health Organization (WHO), a UN agency.
A notable difference
WHO recommendations are as follows: To be healthy, adults aged 18 to 64 should spend at least 150 to 300 minutes per week doing moderate-intensity endurance activity (walking, cycling, etc.), or practice at least 75 to 150 minutes of sustained intensity endurance activity (running, tennis, etc.), or a combination of both. The WHO also recommends practicing muscle-strengthening activities of moderate or greater intensity twice a week or more and limiting sedentary time.
According to the study published in Public Health, the proportion of Danish women with children who did not follow the WHO recommendations on physical activity was 24% higher than that of women without children. 63.8% of women with children did not carry out physical activity in this framework, compared to 51.3% of women without children. These proportions could be especially high because the data was collected during the Covid-19 pandemic, as the researchers note.
Tiredness, lack of time…
This difference may be due to the difficulty mothers have in finding time to play sports, the fatigue they experience, but also the “lack of social support and availability of childcare services,” according to the study.
Globally, men perform more physical activity than women, according to the WHO. In France, in 2015, 71% of men met the WHO recommendations for physical activity, compared to 53% of women, according to a study by Public Health France. A difference that can be explained by several factors.
“Around the ages of 25-30, a period of life in which entering the labor market and creating a family are usually combined, women’s sports practice can be limited by lack of time. In fact , women continue to dedicate more time than men to domestic and parental tasks,” highlighted, for example, the national statistics institute Insee in a 2017 study.
A public health problem
Therefore, the researchers recommend the implementation of public health policies aimed at promoting physical activity among mothers, but also the development of environments that encourage this activity, such as sports programs that include child care.
This is a public health issue, because regular physical activity “facilitates the prevention and treatment of non-communicable diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and several types of cancer,” according to the WHO. It also helps “prevent hypertension, maintain a healthy body weight, and improve mental health, quality of life, and well-being.”
Source: BFM TV
