Seasonal variation in leisure time physical activity

In this paper seasonal variation in leisure time physical activity for exercise is studied and quantified with regard to several popular exercise activities and taking the respondents gender, occupational status, and age into consideration. The analysis concerns data collected by telephone in Scotland between January 1989 and March 1992. Data from 7,202 male and 9,284 female respondents is used in the analysis; cosinor analysis using GLIM is applied. Considerable seasonal variation was found affecting both outdoor and indoor activities. During the peak phase in July, 32% of the respondents reported exercising for at least 20 min three or more times during the previous week, in the winter period this decreased to 23%. Older respondents were found to exercise more later in the year and also showed seasonal variation to a larger extent than younger respondents. This is particularly so for those respondents who exercise at a relatively high frequency.