Other Participation Studies
Wales Outdoor Recreation Survey
The Sport & Culture Team are currently managing a project on behalf of The Countryside Council for Wales and The Forestry Commission to undertake research to monitor the way adults take part in informal outdoor recreation.
The survey is conducted by telephone using RDD (random digit dialling) sampling to generate telephone numbers. Fieldwork started on 21st January 2008 and will run continuously until 20th January 2009. A total of 6,000 interviews will be achieved with adults aged 16+ living in Wales, of which 1,000 will live in each of the six spatial plan areas.
Data from the survey will be used to provide the following types of information:
- overall participation levels, and frequency of visits
- detailed information on specific activities based on most recent trips
- types of countryside visited
- motivations, barriers and latent demand
- demographic data on all respondents
Results of the survey are not publicly available.
Sport Action Zones
Ipsos MORI conducted both the baseline and follow up Sport Action Zone studies on behalf of Sport England in 2001/2 and 2005/6 to measure levels of participation and attitudes towards sport among adults in Barrow-in-Furness, Bradford, Liverpool and Luton. A further qualitative stage of research was also undertaken, to gain insight from SAZ staff in Liverpool and Barrow-in-Furness into what made their SAZs so successful over this period.
Participation in Sport and Physical Exercise in Yorkshire
In 2004 MORI were commissioned by Sport England to undertake a local baseline participation survey in Yorkshire & Humber. This survey is the first ever in the UK to have used IPAQ (International Physical Activity Questionnaire) telephone long format. The IPAQ was pre-selected as the core survey tool that was to be used for this research study. In short, the questionnaire measures bouts of at least ten minutes of different intensity sport and physical activity across various aspects of people's lives - including work, housework, transportation and sport/leisure. In addition to IPAQ questions, further questions about general health, smoking, volunteering, club membership, competitive sport and coaching were also included.
All interviews were conducted using CATI technology (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews). Using a random stratified sampling approach, a total of 21,141 telephone interviews were conducted amongst people living in 21 local authorities in Yorkshire. Interviews were conducted simultaneously across all 21 local authorities so that a more or less even number of interviews were achieved at any given point in the fieldwork, spread as evenly as possible over each day of the week, including weekends. Fieldwork was temporarily halted during the Christmas and New Year period to take account of the impact that the festive season has on people's participation behaviours.
The data from the survey were collated to calculate a number of key performance indicators relating to participation in sport and leisure, club membership, volunteering, competitive participation and coaching. In addition, the population of Yorkshire and Humber were scored against three key measures of physical activity in leisure-time and in transportation:
- People who are inactive have participated for less than 1 day of at least 30 minutes of physical activity per week.
- People who are nominally active have participated for 1-4 days of at least 30 minutes of physical activity per week.
- People who are active have participated in 5 or more days of at least 30 minutes of physical activity per week.