RESEARCH ROUND-UP


Points of view MIKE HILL, MD, LEISURE-NET SOLUTIONS


Findings and analysis from the ninth annual HAFOS survey into consumer attitudes towards health and fitness


N


inety-fi ve per cent of people now believe exercise is important to their health, up 1 per cent on last year – this according to the latest national Health


and Fitness Omnibus Survey (HAFOS). Now in its ninth consecutive year, HAFOS acts as a


barometer of UK consumers’ attitudes towards health, fi tness and physical activity. A street-based survey, it uses a national sample of over 2,400 people interviewed in 10 locations in England and Scotland. The fi ndings are benchmarked against a rolling average of results from the previous fi ve surveys. The ‘activity is important to my health’ fi gure has in fact remained consistently high over the last fi ve years. Similarly


stable, though, is the number of people who nevertheless fail to put this awareness into action: every HAFOS survey has shown that about half of the adult population would like to be more active than they currently are. The 2010 survey is no different – only 42 per cent of respondents felt they exercised as much as they would like. As a sector, we have to ask ourselves how we can turn this awareness into desire and then action.


Figure 1 Would you like to do more physical activity/exercise? YES 75+


65-74 55-64 45-54 35-44 25-34 15-24


Hafos11 38 23% 39%


52% 53%


62% 69% 65% 56% 77% 61%


48% 47%


38% 44%


OLDER AND WISER? Worryingly, older age groups still tend to view exercise as ‘not for them’, with the percentage of over-65s wanting to be more active signifi cantly lower than among younger age groups (see Figure 1, left). As people grow older, they feel they don’t need to exercise as much, when in reality it often becomes more important for them to keep active and mobile. In order to change this perception and attract the grey market, the industry must adapt its educational and marketing messages to specifi cally target this growing percentage of the population.


NO 31% 35%


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