Which activities count? Using experimental data to understand conceptualizations of physical activity

Abstract

US health surveys consistently report that men and those with higher socioeconomic status (SES) engage in more physical activity than women and lower SES counterparts, using questions that ask about physical activity during leisure time. However, social characteristics such as gender and SES shape understandings of and access to leisure-based physical activity as well as other domains where healthy activity is available - namely house work, care work, and paid work. Thus, the physical activity of US adults may look different when what counts as physical activity expands beyond leisure activity. The current study uses Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform to conduct a 2-by-2-by-2 factorial experiment that crosses three types of physical activities: leisure, house or care work, and paid work. We find that physical activity questions that prime respondents - that is, ask respondents - to consider house/care work or paid work lead to increased minutes reported of physical activity compared to not priming for physical activity, while asking about leisure is no different from having no physical activity primed. The effect on reported physical activity of priming with house/care work is stronger for women than men, demonstrating support for gendered specialization of time spent in the house and care work domain. The effects on reported physical activity of priming with house/care work and paid work are stronger for those with less education compared to more education, consistent with socioeconomic divisions in access to physical activity in house/care work and employment. This study highlights the contingence of our understanding of the physical activity of US adults on both its measurement in surveys and the social forces which shape understanding of and access to physical activity.

Keywords: Mechanical Turk; United States; experimental design; gender; health disparities; physical activity; socioeconomic status; survey methods.

Fig. 1

Average number of minutes per week reported in physical activity by experimental treatment group. Data: 2016 Mechanical Turk Physical Activity Survey, N = 3189, ^aSignificantly different (p < .05) from no prime, ^bSignificantly different (p < .05) from leisure, ^cSignificantly different (p < .05) from paid work. ^dSignificantly different (p < .05) from house/care work. ^eSignificantly different (p < .05) from leisure+paid work.