The onset of middle age might be earlier than you think in terms of physical fitness. According to the city's first fitness test, 30 is the age at which Hong Kong people's physical fitness starts to fall.

Advisory Committee on the Physical Fitness Test for the Community Convener Dr Lo Wing-lok said: "Indicators such as body weight, blood pressure, flexibility of muscle and joints and muscular strength and endurance show that physical fitness deteriorates from 30 onwards. But it is also clear from the test results that the more frequently you exercise, the more physically fit you will be."

The Physical Fitness Test for the Community was conducted between November March on over 8,000 people. They were divided into four age groups - toddlers aged three to six; children seven to 12; juveniles 13 to 19 and adults 20 to 69.

Weight problem

Obesity became noticeably worse after 30 and this tendency was more pronounced among men than women. Half of men aged over 30 and 64% over 40 were overweight. The corresponding figures for women were 30% and 40%.

One quarter of male participants older than 30 were classified as obese, the proportion rising to 35 % when counting only those older than 40. The corresponding figures for female age groups were both 17%.

The test indicated the majority of the participants did not engage in enough physical activities. Only 26% of the adults and 33.8% of the children and juvenile engaged in sufficient physical activities to maintain physical health.

Dr Lo suggested people to do physical exercise of moderate intensity three to five times a week. "Moderate intensity" means the exercise should cause people sweat lightly and raise temperature and heartbeat but should not affect the ability to speak.

Exercise more

Adults should exercise for an aggregate of 30 minutes a day. Juveniles aged 13 to 19 should do moderate or strenuous exercise three times weekly, each time lasting for no less than 20 minutes, whereas children aged 12 or below should accumulate 60 minutes of physical activities a day.

On parents' habits, the test found fathers had a great deal of influence on how frequently their children exercise. While fathers' exercising habits had a positive influence on both sons and daughters, mothers' exercising habits tended to have a positive influence on daughters only.

Other key findings included:

* 15.7% of children who spent three hours each day watching television or using computer were overweight, as compared with only 8% of those who sat less than one hour each day in front of the television or the computer;

* male non-smokers fared better than smokers in having weight closer to the Body Mass Index, narrower waists, lower resting heartbeat rates and better reaction time. Non-smoking women's waists measured on average one inch less than women smokers;

* on why they lacked enthusiasm for physical activities, 28.1% of the children and juvenile cited "tiredness" while 18.5% of them cited "lack of time", even though 76.9% of them said they liked physical education classes and 71.9% said they liked organised physical activities. Among the adults, 32.2% cited "laziness" while 21.1% cited "lack of time" as the reason for inactivity; and,

* cycling and ball games were the most popular physical activities among toddlers while swimming and ball games were children's and juveniles' favourites. Adults, on the other hand, preferred walking and running.

Data bank

The Physical Fitness Test for the Community was conducted with reference to the State Sport General Administration's work plan for monitoring physical fitness of nationals. It was carried out primarily to set up a data bank of the population's physical condition and to identify the correlation between their physical condition and physical exercise pattern. The findings will help the Government formulate policies to improve the health of the population.

The Community Sports Committee has recommended the test be conducted every five years in future.