The Community Sports Committee (CSC) today announced the findings of the Territory-wide Physical Fitness Survey for the Community, which showed that most physical fitness parameters have improved compared to a decade ago.

Although most of the physical fitness parameters have improved across different age groups compared to the findings of a similar survey a decade ago, reflecting people’s growing health awareness, it was found that more than half of the public did not meet the daily physical activity level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The survey was steered by the Territory-wide Physical Fitness Survey for the Community Advisory Committee set up by the CSC under the Sports Commission, and was co-ordinated by the Leisure & Cultural Services Department with the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Department of Sports Science & Physical Education as the survey consultant.

More than 9,300 Hong Kong people participated in the survey, which divided all participants aged seven to 79 into six categories and was based on the age and gender distribution reported by the Census & Statistics Department’s 2021 Population Census for data collection in proportion.

The survey findings revealed that children’s muscular endurance and adolescents’ muscular strength performed worse than that recorded in the previous survey. The new survey recommended that children should receive more muscular endurance training and adolescents should do more muscular fitness exercise, such as box jumping, rope skipping and long jumps.

Adults’ balance also needs to improve. It is recommended that additional balance exercises should be arranged. Noting increased subcutaneous fat among adolescents and a high level of prevalence of central obesity and hypertension in the older population, the survey suggested that stakeholders should launch exercise programmes to manage obesity and hypertension.

The survey also showed that 53.8% of adults did not meet the level of physical activity recommended by the WHO, ie more than 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in a week.

Furthermore, 66.3% of children and 50.7% of adolescents did not meet the WHO's recommended standards, ie an average of 60 minutes per day of MVPA through the week.

The report suggested strengthening promotion of the WHO’s physical activity recommendations to the public and organising more sports activities based on the their favourite sports revealed in the survey findings, such as ball games, swimming and skating or roller skating.

It also recommended organising more family-based exercise events over weekends and holidays as well as encouraging parents to exercise with their children during their leisure time.

To eliminate obstacles and arouse interest in engaging in physical activity, the report urged the Government to collaborate with various national sports associations to offer more online training courses which are less subject to time constraints.