Fewer than half the people in Queensland are adequately active for good health, according to a University of Queensland researcher.
"Current recommendations suggest that 'adequately active' means 30 minutes of moderate intensity leisure time activity on most days of the week, and not enough people are able to do that," Professor Wendy Brown said.
Professor Brown recently joined the University's School of Human Movement Studies, as part of the School's developing focus on research and teaching in the area of population health.
'Human movement studies has an important role in population health,' she said. 'Physical inactivity is responsible for a high proportion of ill health in Australia, and human movement graduates could potentially play a significant role promoting activity, both for the prevention and management of chronic disease" she said.
Professor Brown said this was important because Australians were gaining weight at a faster rate than ever before. The proportion of obese men has increased dramatically from 7.8 percent in 1980 to 18.5 percent in 1995, and of women, from 6.9 percent to 18.2percent.
'This trend shows no sign of abating,' she said. 'Overweight and obesity are associated with increased levels of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, breast cancer, gallstones, degenerative joint disease and obstructive sleep apnoea. All these problems can be prevented and alleviated by regular physical activity.'
So why are people getting fatter? Professor Brown does not think it is because we eat too much - rather that we move too little. Finding time for physical activity is a problem for many people, especially those who work long hours, and those who have caring responsibilities.
"Although time is a major barrier to being active, on average Australians now watch two hours of television every day. We also think that children may be spending more time in sedentary activities, such as computer games," she said.
"But it is not just a question of swapping TV and computers for exercise," Professor Brown said. "People have to have safe environments in which to be active, and these are not always available for many people, especially after dark."
Understanding the barriers to physical activity, and helping to overcome them will be one focus of a new first year UQ subject for Human Movement students next year. This will have a strong inter-disciplinary focus, bringing together evidence from sociology, psychology, epidemiology and health promotion, to give students the skills they will need to help people to become more active.
Professor Brown is currently researching the activity patterns of mothers of young children, who are among the most 'leisure time poor' members of the population.
"As most mothers will know, looking after small children is not exactly a sedentary occupation," Professor Brown said, "but the problem is that we do not know whether the level of activity involved in child rearing is sufficient to maintain good health."
Professor Brown is seeking volunteers to assist with this work. If you are a mother of children under five years old, and would like to help, please telephone honours student Caroline Ringuet on 3365 6094, for more information.
Professor Brown, formerly Director of the Research Institute for Gender and Health, University of Newcastle, has a distinguished education career, attracting considerable funding for health research. One of the principal investigators for the $8m Commonwealth Government funded Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, she hopes to maintain her involvement in this multi-disciplinary project, with other staff members from the Universities of Queensland and Newcastle.
Media: Further information, contact Professor Wendy Brown, telephone 07 3365 6446 or Jan King at UQ Communications, telephone 0413 601 248.
Alternatively, you can email us at communications@mailbox.uq.edu.au
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