Educational differentials in key domains of physical activity by ethnicity, age and sex: a cross-sectional study of over 40 000 participants in the UK household longitudinal study (2013-2015).

OBJECTIVES:To assess whether educational differentials in three key physical activity (PA) domains vary by age, sex and ethnicity. DESIGN:National cross-sectional survey. SETTING:UK. PARTICIPANTS:Altogether 40 270 participants, aged 20 years and over, from the UK Household Longitudinal Study with information on education, PA and demographics collected in 2013-2015. OUTCOME MEASURES:Participation in active travel (AT), occupational activity (OA) and leisure time physical activity (LTPA) at the time of assessment. RESULTS:Lower educational attainment was associated with higher AT and OA, but lower weekly LTPA activity; these associations were modified by sex, ethnicity and age. Education-related differences in AT were larger for women-the difference in predicted probability of activity between the highest and the lowest education groups was -10% in women (95% CI: -11.9% to 7.9%) and -3% in men (-4.8% to -0.4%). Education-related differences in OA were larger among men -35% (-36.9% to -32.4%) than women -17% (-19.4% to -15.0%). Finally, education-related differences in moderate-to-vigorous LTPA varied by ethnicity; for example, differences were 17% (16.2% to 18.7%) for white individuals compared with 6% (0.6% to 11.6%) for black individuals. CONCLUSIONS:Educational differences in PA vary by domain and are modified by age, sex and ethnicity. A better understanding of physically inactive subgroups may aid development of interventions to both increase activity levels and reduce health inequalities.