The Effects of Socio-Economic Status on Physical Activity Participation in Hong Kong Adolescents

Download or read book The Effects of Socio-Economic Status on Physical Activity Participation in Hong Kong Adolescents written by Lok-Chun Janet Lee and published by Open Dissertation Press. This book was released on 2017-01-26 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation, "The Effects of Socio-economic Status on Physical Activity Participation in Hong Kong Adolescents: a Social Ecological Approach" by Lok-chun, Janet, Lee, 李樂真, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Motivations: Socio-economic status (SES) is a major source of health disparities. Those who lived in resource-deficient social and physical environments and with low individual income have been found to be at increased risk of physical inactivity. In Hong Kong there is virtually no research on the effect of SES on adolescent physical activity (PA). It is therefore important to explore the SES differentials in PA among Hong Kong adolescents and identify the mechanisms underlying such differentials. It is also important to examine the extent to which SES acts as a moderator and mediator of associations between various potential determinants of adolescent PA. Methods: A hundred eighty-one adolescents aged 12-18 were recruited in the study. This study applied an ecological framework to study the SES effects on adolescents' PA participation. Physical activity was measured both objectively using accelerometers and subjectively using self-reports. Individual, social and school environment factors were assessed by validated self-report measures. Neighborhood built environmental factors were assessed using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data. Individual-level SES was based on parents' report of monthly household income, while area-level SES was based on census data on median household income of selected study neighborhoods. Generalized linear models with robust standard errors were used to assess associations of individual, social and environmental factors with adolescents' PA. They were also used to assess the moderating of SES and mediators of SES-PA relationships. Results: The results supported the hypothesis that individual, social and environmental factors would all contribute to the explanation of adolescents' PA. Moderation analyses showed that the PA level of adolescents living in low SES areas might have been negatively affected by the presence of steep streets in the neighborhood environment and the lack of sports facilities. These effects were not observed in adolescents living in high SES areas. In contrast, only adolescents living in high-SES areas showed positive associations of school-based social support and school PA-related environment with PA. Mediation analyses showed that SES differences in adolescents PA participation could be explained by social support from family and access to sports/recreational facilities in/around the school. Significance: The current findings would imply that environmental interventions at the neighborhood level might benefit low-SES groups of adolescents as they seem to be more influenced by aspects of the neighborhood environment. By contrast, high-SES adolescents might be more reactive to school-based environmental interventions. To narrow the SES gap in PA participation among Hong Kong adolescents, interventions should encourage low-SES families to provide more support to their children by widening the available range of opportunities for PA, encouraging their children to participate in PA, and acting as role models. The findings from this study also suggest that the provision of more PA facilities in/around school neighborhood in