Introduction This study examined physical activity (PA) levels among youth (12–17 years) and adults (18 years and older) living in Canada by subgroups including gender, sexual orientation, population groups, education, and income. Methods Data from the 2021 Canadian Community Health Survey (N = 44 239), a large national, cross-sectional survey, was used to examine self-reported daily PA time spent in active transportation, recreation, school/camp, occupational/household, and adherence to PA recommendations (≥ 60 minutes/day and ≥ 150 minutes/week of moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA for youth and adults, respectively) by population subgroups. Significant differences within subgroups were assessed with chi-square and Tukey-Kramer analyses. Results Among youth, boys were more likely to meet the PA recommendation than girls (54.9% vs. 36.5%). Boys engaged in more recreational (36.0 vs. 24.0 min/day) and school/camp (24.0 vs. 15.9 min/day) PA than girls. Youth from households in the highest income quintile reported more recreational PA compared to those in the lowest income quintile (35.8 vs. 22.1 min/day). Among adults, there was a significant gender difference in PA recommendation adherence (men: 57.4% vs. women: 51.7%). Men engaged in more recreational (18.0 vs. 15.1 min/day) and occupational/household (26.4 vs. 15.4 min/day) PA than women. Recreational PA was significantly higher in households with the highest income (22.8 min/day) and education (17.4 min/day) compared to lowest income (10.4 min/day) and education (6.9 min/day), respectively. Few sub-group differences were observed for active transportation. Conclusion PA inequalities persist in Canada. Future research should explore why these inequalities exist to help inform interventions.
Lang et al. (Sun,) studied this question.