Brief reportLife transitions and changing physical activity patterns in young women
Introduction
L ittle is known about the impact of early adult life events on physical activity (PA).1 Evidence from cross-sectional studies suggests that college students are more active than their working counterparts and that women who are mothers are less active than women who do not have children.2 There is conflicting evidence about the association between marital status and PA; some studies report positive or negative relationships and others report no association.1, 3, 4
The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health offers the opportunity to explore changing patterns of PA as women in their early twenties experience key personal life events relating to education, employment, and relationships. The women in this study were aged 18 to 23 years when they completed baseline surveys on a wide range of health and social indicators in 1996.5 Baseline patterns of PA and their relationships with well-being and common health problems have been described previously.2 The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether key life events experienced by young women in their early twenties were associated with inactivity at the time of the second survey in 2000.
Section snippets
Participants
A total of 14,779 women (aged 18 to 23 years) completed the baseline survey in 1996. Comparison with the 1996 Australian Bureau of Statistics census data shows that the respondents were broadly representative of the female population in this age group.6 A total of 9657 women completed the second survey in 2000. The low response rate reflects the transient nature of women’s lives at this life stage, with numerous name and address changes making tracking difficult.7 There were no significant
Results
The demographic characteristics of the women at baseline and follow-up are shown in Table 1. In 2000, more women were married and had children, had completed their studies, and were in full-time work. The distribution of BMI categories also changed significantly between 1996 and 2000 (see Table 1).
Cross-sectional data at baseline and follow-up indicated no change in the proportion of women categorized as “active” in 1996 (56.9%) and 2000 (55.7%). However, more than one third (36%) of the 4140
Discussion
These results demonstrate the impact of life events on changing patterns of PA in young adult women. While associations between motherhood and inactivity are well documented,4, 12, 13 the impact of marriage on PA is less well understood. In Australia, time-use studies indicate that women increase their unpaid work by almost 60% when they marry, resulting in increased pressure on the availability of time for leisure.14 Although other cross-sectional studies have reported age-related reductions
Acknowledgements
The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health is funded by the Australian Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care. The contribution of all members of the research team at the University of Newcastle to collection of data is gratefully acknowledged. We are also grateful to the thousands of women who are participants in this project.
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