To the Editor,
Meseguer et al. recent study1 presented trends in adult leisure time and workplace physical activity in the Región de Madrid autonomous community of Spain between 1995 and 2008. Their results highlight a slight fall in levels of leisure time physical activity and an especially interesting increase in the proportion of men and women who engage in no leisure time physical activity at all. Currently, no data exist on trends in Spanish adolescents’ engagement in leisure time or extracurricular physical activity. These data could be of interest to public health authorities given that adolescence is a stage of life characterized by a substantial decline in levels of physical activity, compared with infancy.2 Moreover, an active lifestyle during adolescence could prevent cardiovascular and metabolic disease from developing at this age3, 4 and in adulthood.5
We set out to investigate trends in adolescents’ participation in extracurricular physical activity in the city of Madrid (Spain) between 2001-2002 and 2007-2008. To achieve this, we used data on participation in extracurricular physical activity adolescents 13 to 17years of age in Madrid, obtained in the AVENA (Food and Assessment of the Nutritional Status of Spanish Adolescents)6 and AFINOS (Physical Activity as a Preventive Measure for Overweight, Obesity, Infection, Allergies and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Adolescents)7 studies. For the present study, we included data obtained on 573 adolescents (50.1% girls) in the AVENA study and 956 adolescents (48.5% girls) in the AFINOS study. Analysis of the sample reflects a slight increase in the proportion of adolescents engaging in extracurricular physical activity (60.9% vs 64.2%, in 2001-2002 and 2007-2008, respectively), although differences were nonsignificant (P=.193). Analysis of data by sex found nonsignificant increases in the percentages of both boys (74.9% vs 76.9%; P=.455) and girls (46.4% vs 51.6%; P=.171) engaging in extracurricular physical activity. However, differences remained in the proportions of boys and girls who participated (P<.001).
From data on weight and height (measured objectively in AVENA and self-reported in AFINOS), we calculated body mass index and classified the adolescents as normal or overweight (including obesity).8 We also classified them in 3 groups (poor, average, good) by self-reported physical condition level recorded on a 5-point Likert scale (very poor, poor, average, good, very good) used in both studies. We found no significant differences in the percentage of adolescents participating in extracurricular physical activity between 2001-2002 and 2007-2008 by body weight or physical condition (P>.05). These results indicate the trend of adolescents participating in extracurricular physical activity in Madrid remained steady over these 6years. Although the lack of a fall in the percentage of adolescents engaging in physical activity could initially be considered positive, a) differences between genders were maintained and girls participated less than boys, and b) educational and public health policy applied in Madrid in recent years aiming to increase adolescent participation in extracurricular physical activity has apparently not had the desired impact. Hence, we urgently need to design more effective policies aimed at increasing adolescent participation in extracurricular physical activity, principally directed at the adolescents themselves.
☆ The names of the AFINOS and AVENA study researchers can be found in annexes to the articles published in Rev Esp Cardiol. 2010;63:277-85 and Rev Esp Cardiol. 2007;60:581-8, respectively.
Corresponding author: d.martinez@uam.es