Standards | LG Inform Plus

Help text: The number of respondents aged 19 and over, with valid responses to questions on physical activity, doing at least 150 moderate intensity equivalent (MIE) minutes physical activity per week in bouts of 10 minutes or more in the previous 28 days expressed as a percentage of the total number of respondents aged 19 and over.

The survey uses a 28-day reference period to record the number of minutes of physical activity (of at least 10 minutes) and then divides the number of minutes by four to calculate a weekly average (e.g. 2 hours of physical activity over the 28 days equates to 30 minutes per week). Number of minutes presented is the moderate intensity equivalent minutes of activity, which consists of moderate activity plus double the number of vigorous minutes of activity. The (broad) activities included in the estimates are; sporting activities, fitness activities, cycling for leisure and sport, cycling for travel, walking for leisure, walking for travel, creative or artistic dance and gardening. The counts are weighted to be representative of the national population.

The values are calculated from Active Lives a self-report survey, which is subjective and is influenced by the respondent's ability to recall and assess their physical activity levels. Self-reported data may also be affected by respondent desire to confirm to expectations and social norms (e.g. smoking under-estimated and PA over-estimated). However, although this might affect the absolute values, this should not affect comparisons if the bias is consistent across populations.

Latest update presents data from Active Lives for the period mid-November to mid-November.