April 01, 2004

By: Anneta O’Hara
Website: http://www.1st-in-wellness.com

Older Americans Lead Surge In Physical Fitness As Walking Surpasses Team Sports

Americans ages 45 and older have led a surge in physical conditioning activities like walking and running, while participation in team and other sports declined since 1990, according to data from Mediamark Research Inc.

Over the past 12 years, the number of people 45-64 who reported having participated in conditioning activites 11 or more times in the last 30 days climbed to 34% from 19%. Similar activity among those between the ages of 18 and 34, however, declined to 33% from 49%.

More Americans, particularly Baby Boomers, are lacing up their athletic shoes and burning calories today than 12 years ago, said Anne Marie Kelly, Vice President, Marketing and Strategic Planning at MRI. Respondents who participated in at least one of the 37 sports measured consistently by MRI since 1990 increased from 62% to 69%. Walking is by far the most popular type of physical conditioning activity.

MRI is the country’s leading provider of multimedia consumer research data. Since 1979, the company has continuously surveyed consumers to track their exposure to advertising media and their use of advertised goods and services.

When the most popular sporting activities—those in which more than 2.5% of the population participated—are grouped together, those whose prime benefit is improving fitness have shown the greatest increase between 1990 and 2002, the MRI data show. Team sports decreased by 18%, while participation in conditioning sports increased 10%.

Sample of Sports in groups: Team Sports: Baseball, Football, Volleyball Nature Sports: Hunting, Fishing, Hiking Society Sports: Golf, Tennis, Downhill Skiing Conditioning Sports: Running Swimming, Weightlifting, Walking, Bicycling

As sports participation has increased among the 45-64-year-olds, so has spending on sports-related equipment. Since the spring of 1990, the share of spending on big-ticket sports and recreation equipment among this group has nearly tripled, from 11% in 1990 to 30% in the spring of 2002.

MRI conducts 26,000 in-home interviews each year, the biggest survey of its kind. The data from these interviews have become the basic media-planning content for the majority of the media plans that are created each year by national advertisers and their agencies, many of which are clients of MRI.

About The Author:

Anneta O’Hara is a successful author and regular contributor to http://www.1st-in-wellness.com.  Obtaining and keeping good health through healthy living, natural healing, great mental health and healthy finances.