6 - Two national surveys of activity, fitness and health: the Allied Dunbar National Fitness survey and the Welsh Heart Health survey

Summary

Introduction

This chapter presents information on two national surveys of activity, fitness and health: the Allied Dunbar National Fitness Survey and the Welsh Heart Health Survey. The former is ongoing, with data collection completed in November 1990, and the production of a report planned for early 1992. The latter was completed in 1985 under the auspices of Heartbeat Wales, a community-based heart disease prevention programme. While both are surveys of activity, fitness and health, they are different in many respects (e.g. aims and objectives, fieldwork procedures, test ingredients and methodology). The Allied Dunbar Fitness Survey is a large-scale descriptive survey specifically set up to address the measurement of physical activity patterns and fitness in a random sample of the adult population of England. In contrast, the major aim of the Welsh Heart Health Survey was that of intervention, attempting to change attitudes with a view to decreasing the incidence of coronary heart disease in the population of Wales.

Since the results of the Allied Dunbar Fitness Survey will not be available until 1992, only a description of the survey methodology and procedures is presented here. However, some of the results of the Welsh Heart Health Survey are presented to give an insight into the relationship between physical activity and fitness for a sample of the Welsh population.