Physical activity and sports involvement in 8- and 13-year-old children in Sweden

The physical activity of randomly selected 8- and 13-year-old children, living in four different regions of Sweden, was investigated by means of a questionnaire. The younger children of each sex were found to be physically more active than the older ones, and within each age group the boys were physically more active than the girls. The results points to higher sports involvement today compared with 10-15 years ago, especially among younger children. It was also shown that regular physical training constituted a smaller proportion of the total physical activity among the younger children than among the older ones. At both ages and in both sexes the rate of regular physical training was lower in municipalities of less than 1,000 inhabitants, and in the 8-year-old children it was also lower in municipalities of less than 5,000 inhabitants. Among the girls regular physical training was more common in those whose fathers had a high educational level compared with the girls who had fathers of a lower educational level.