Canadian Health Measures Survey: Directly measured physical activity of Canadians, 2012 and 2013
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Released: 2015-02-18
Results from the 2012 and 2013 Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) indicate that adults aged 18 to 79 accumulated an average of about 12 minutes per day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in bouts of 10 minutes or more, or 84 minutes per week. As such, about one in five adults achieved the recommended 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (in 10 minute bouts) set out by the Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines for adults and older adults. The percentage of adults meeting the guidelines was lower in older age groups. Adults aged 18 to 39 (32%) were significantly more likely to meet the guidelines than those aged 40 to 59 (18%) or 60 to 79 (12%).
Results from the 2012 and 2013 CHMS also indicate that most school-aged children and youth are not getting enough physical activity to meet the current Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines. In school-aged children between the ages of 5 and 17, 13% of boys and 6% of girls were getting an average of at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily as recommended in the Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines for children and youth. Girls aged 12 to 17 were least likely to get the recommended amount of activity (3%), whereas boys aged 5 to 11 were most likely to meet the guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (18%).
Note to readers
The Canadian Health Measures Survey was conducted from January 2012 to December 2013.
The fact sheets "Directly measured physical activity of adults, 2012 and 2013," and "Directly measured physical activity of children and youth, 2012 and 2013" from the publication Health Fact Sheets (Catalogue number82-625-X), are now available from the Browse by key resource module of our website under Publications.
This release also includes a medication data file containing collected information from the household and clinic questionnaires on self-reported medication use.
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