Physical exercise in southern Germany: a cross-sectional study of an urban population

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the degree of physical exercise and self-assessment of physical fitness (PF) and their relationship to health- and behaviour-specific factors in a randomly selected sample of an urban population in southern Germany. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: In the southern German city of Leutkirch. PARTICIPANTS: 2187 subjects randomly selected from the registry of inhabitants. Of the selected group, aged 18–65 years, 52.1% were women and 47.9% men. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants were asked how many hours per week they spent on physical exercise and sports. They were also asked to rate their own performance and/or PF. RESULTS: Overall, 38.9% of the participants reported no physical exercise. Men reported a higher level of physical exercise than did women. Less exercise was reported by subjects with diabetes, high body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio and by those who were underweight. Alcohol consumption, smoker status and higher educational level showed a positive association with physical exercise. A negative trend with respect to moderate physical exercise was observed for those with metabolic syndrome, diabetes, hypertension and hepatic steatosis, but this was statistically significant only for subjects with diabetes. In both men and women, there was a relationship between self-assessed ‘good’ PF and high physical exercise. CONCLUSIONS: The data show that a large proportion of the study population is not physically active; specific risk groups (overweight subjects, older subjects, smokers or subjects with low educational level) are even less active. The data suggest that there is a great potential for measures promoting physical exercise in these groups.