Determinants of Sports Participation and Duration of Sports Activity among Russian Adults

Insufficient physical activity is an important health problem in Russia as less than half of Russian adult population is engaged in sports activity. Lack of sufficient sports activity leads to such consequences as excess body weight, which is now one of the leading risk factors for world mortality. For this reason, the government needs to actively involve its population in sports, but for such a policy to be effective, a clear understanding of what exactly prevents people from sports activity is needed. This paper explores the relationship between sport participation and duration of sports activities and the different characteristics of Russians. The object of the study is mass sports participation, the study considers participation in six most practiced sports - running, fitness, cycling, swimming, dancing and team sports. The analysis uses data from the RLMS HSE during 2018. The evaluation is made using the Cragg model, which represents a class of double hurdle models. As a result of the analysis, I found a positive relationship between participation in sports and being male, higher education and residence in Moscow or St. Petersburg , but the relationship between these characteristics and the duration of sports activity was not confirmed for most sports. The presence of young children, age, residence in rural areas and low financial situation are negatively related to participation in sports. The same holds for the duration of sports activity, except for the relationship with the presence of young children - this variable turned out to be insignificant in the duration equation. It was also found that for some sports, employment and chronic diseases are significant factors, but the exact relationship with these characteristics varies from sport to sport.