| Age group, years and sports participation | Men | Women | ||||||
| % (95% CI) | Adjusted p value for trend* | % (95% CI) | Adjusted p value for trend* | |||||
| 199/8 | 2006 | 199/8 | 2003/4 | 2006 | ||||
| 16–29 | ||||||||
| Any† | 75.6 (73.9 to 77.3) | 74.5 (72.5 to 76.6) | 73.4 (70.7 to 76.1) | 61.0 (59.2 to 62.8) | 62.4 (60.4 to 64.4) | 61.5 (58.9 to 64.1) | 0.454 | |
| Regular‡ | 63.0 (61.0 to 65.0) | 63.5 (61.2 to 65.8) | 63.1 (60.2 to 66.0) | 0.932 | 46.7 (44.8 to 48.6) | 48.9 (46.8 to 51.0) | 48.7 (46.0 to 51.4) | 0.139 |
| 30–44 | ||||||||
| Any† | 58.9 (57.2 to 60.6) | 60.6 (58.8 to 62.4) | 59.0 (56.6 to 61.4) | 0.555 | 50.8 (49.2 to 52.4) | 54.8 (58.2 to 56.4) | 53.4 (51.3 to 55.5) | 0.007 |
| Regular‡ | 44.3 (42.6 to 46.0) | 48.5 (46.6 to 50.4) | 46.7 (44.3 to 49.1) | 0.041 | 36.4 (34.9 to 37.9) | 41.1 (39.5 to 42.7) | 40.7 (38.0 to 42.8) | <0.001 |
| 45–64 | ||||||||
| Any† | 39.4 (37.8 to 41.0) | 42.7 (41.0 to 44.4) | 44.2 (42.1 to 46.3) | 0.026 | 37.7 (36.2 to 39.2) | 39.5 (38.0 to 41.0) | 42.7 (40.8 to 44.6) | 0.038 |
| Regular‡ | 29.6 (28.1 to 31.1) | 32.6 (31.0 to 34.2) | 34.0 (32.0 to 36.0) | 0.014 | 27.1 (25.7 to 28.5) | 32.8 (31.0 to 34.6) | 0.001 | |
| 65+ | ||||||||
| Any† | 23.2 (21.4 to 25.0) | 25.9 (24.0 to 27.8) | 28.3 (26.0 to 30.6) | 0.026 | 16.1 (14.8 to 17.5) | 21.4 (19.9 to 22.9) | 20.1 (18.3 to 21.9) | <0.001 |
| Regular‡ | 18.5 (16.8 to 20.2) | 21.3 (19.5 to 23.1) | 22.9 (20.7 to 25.1) | 0.039 | 13.0 (11.8 to 14.2) | 17.0 (15.6 to 18.4) | 16.1 (14.4 to 17.8) | |
Data from the Health Survey for England for men and women aged ⩾16 years in England.
*Adjusted for ethnicity, social class, income, education, obesity status, car ownership, smoking status, general health, occupational activity and non-sporting/non-occupational physical activity. *At least once/week on average. †At least once in the last 4 weeks.