Question On Notice No. 202 asked in the Legislative Council on 24 June 2021 by Hon Wilson Tucker
Question Directed to the: Minister for Mental Health representing the Minister for Health
Parliament: 41 Session: 1
Question
I refer the Minister to data collected by the Department of Health on the level of physical activity, health and wellbeing of the population over the period of 2006 to 2009, when Western Australia trialled daylight saving time, and I ask:
(a) can the Minister outline the results of the Department of Health's evaluation of the effect of daylight saving on physical activity; and
(b) will the Minister table any Department of Health publications on the effects of Western Australia's daylight saving trial?
Answered on 19 August 2021
I am advised:
(a) A survey of 1,083 WA adults was conducted for the Premiers’ Physical Activity Taskforce to investigate changes in self reported physical activity during the daylight saving trial in the summer of 2006/7. The key findings are as follows:
· the proportion of respondents reporting doing no physical activity per week increased significantly from 3.6% in the period prior to daylight saving to 8% during the daylight saving trial;
· 27% of adult respondents reported an increase, 22% reported a decrease, and 51% reported no change in the duration of time spent doing physical activity during the trial;
· 45.5% of respondents reported that daylight saving had affected the time of day when they exercised, with fewer people exercising in the morning and more in the evening;
· 23% of respondents stopped exercising in the morning and this had the most impact on females and country residents;
· the study concluded that daylight saving has the potential to significantly impact on patterns of physical activity.
(b) This study has been published (Rosenberg M and Wood L. The power of policy to influence behaviour change: daylight saving and its effect on physical activity. ANZ Journal of Public Health 2010:34:83-9) and is publicly available from:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1753-6405.2010.00479.x
Please see tabled paper no.