Greater Manchester BAME Activity Levels Nov 17-18

The Chief Medical Officer states that UK adults should do 150 minutes, or more, of activity per week. That’s a little over 20 minutes per day, on average, and can take any form to suit age, ability, and preferences. However, in Greater Manchester, there’s a big variation in activity levels across different ethnic groups.

Two women dancing in an exercise class

We’re incredibly proud of our region’s diverse population. However, at GreaterSport, we know that increased activity levels need to be achieved by all. With your help, we can make this happen.

What can inactivity levels reveal?

30 minutes of activity per week is five times less than the recommended guidelines. However, over one third of people from a South Asian background (35.6%), and 30.5% from Other cited backgrounds, are failing to achieve this. An even lower figure reveals that less than a quarter of White British (25%) or White Other (22.1%) achieve 30 minutes of activity a week.

The trend across ethnicities is that inactivity has dropped for all ethnicities from 2015-16 to 2017-18, except White Other in GM. But more so for Black (-7.3%), Mixed (-6.4%) and South Asian (-6%) ethnicities, compared to White British (-2.4%). Compared to the national average inactivity across ethnicities has decreased by more for White British (-4.4%), similar for Mixed (-6.2%), much less for Black (-2.4%) and actually increased by almost double for South Asian (+11.3%) ethnicities.

Additional figures reveal further concerns. At GreaterSport, we know there is a disparity between male and female inactivity levels. Whilst inactivity levels are higher for women than men across all ethnicities, this is dramatically reversed for Black ethnic groups in Greater Manchester. In fact, inactivity levels for men of black ethnicity are -7.4% lower than for women. This is compared to the national statistic of +0.7%: a huge difference for our region.

These are significantly low levels of activity across all demographics. However, there’s a marked difference between ethnic groups. At GreaterSport, we’re increasing our understanding of why this difference exists. But we’ll need your help to change it.

Which groups are closest to the CMO guidelines?

The Chief Medical Officer’s guideline – 150 minutes or more of activity for a UK adult every week – is not being met by any ethnic group within our Greater Manchester region.

This is significant cause for concern.

A little under 50% of people from Other (46.2%) backgrounds are active for 150 minutes or more per week. And just over half of people from a South Asian (53.3%) or Black (55.7%) background meet the guidelines. However, this figure rises amongst those from a White British (62.1%) background, where 62.1% meet the activity target. It further increases to over a third with White Other (66.6%), Mixed (67.6%) or Chinese (67.8%) backgrounds, where over 6 in 10 are achieving the CMO’s recommended activity levels.

What’s more, national figures reveal inactivity in older adults is higher in South Asian and Black ethnic groups than for White British groups. (This is across both the 55-74 age range and the 75+ age category).