The relationship between family socio-economic status, family social support and adolescent physical activity

Background
There are numerous benefits of undertaking regular physical activity on health. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends for young people to undertake at least 60 minutes of moderately intense physical activity daily. Despite the well-known health benefits of exercise, the levels of physically inactive young people are continuously increasing. A large number of studies have found a relationship between socio-economic status and chronic disease. The aim of our study was to examine: the association between family socio-economic status and adolescent physical activity and also to assess the link between social support and adolescents’ physical activity and finally to examine whether there are any gender differences.

Material and methods
There were 3396 final year secondary school students from 33 randomly selected secondary schools from Zagreb included in our study. The study was conducted from April 2015 to June 2016. Physical activity was measured using a short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-SF). Socio-economic status and family social support was assessed using questionnaires.

Results
Boys were significantly more physically active than girls. The results of the logistic regression analysis did not determine a statistically significant association between the socio-economic status and physical activity of the participants.

Conclusions
Family social support and socio-economic status were not positively related to physical activity in Croatian adolescents.